A thief who stole £30,000-worth of lead from church roofs was caught after dropping a probation letter at one of the crime scenes./headdesk
James Wall, 21, and partner-in-crime Aaron Hennessy were jailed yesterday for 15 months as Judge Christopher Compston condemned them for targeting community venues in December and January.Well, at least they got a custodial sentence!
Their barrister told Judge Compston at Oxford Crown Court yesterday they needed the cash to buy Christmas presents.SNORK!
Hilary Neville, prosecuting, said the thefts “accumulate to somewhere in the region of over £30,000”.The judge, surprisingly enough, asked the obvious question:
Venues were insured but repair costs were more than the value of the stolen metal, she said.
She said both admitted the thefts to police and showed receipts from T R Rogers scrap merchants in Nuneham Courtenay, where they sold the metal.
Judge Christopher Compston said: “Has investigation been done to the person who bought the lead because most of us don’t turn up selling lead?”It damn well should be!
Miss Neville said the company was a legitimate business but did not know if an investigation was under way.
Of course, they have tons of previous:
Wall, of Mount View, Henley, has six previous convictions and admitted breaching a suspended prison sentence for sexual activity with a child. Hennessy, 24, of Beeching Way, Wallingford, has three previous convictions for theft, common assault and making off without payment.A truly thankless task for their defence, but give him his due, he did his best:
Andrew Hobson, defending, said Wall’s benefits had been stopped and father-of-one Hennessy had “no great deal of money”.Of course they did….
He said: “They did it because they were short of money. Christmas was coming and they felt a form of pressure as perhaps many of us do.
“They wanted to buy people Christmas presents.”
Had the theft occurred in the build up to Easter, they would have wanted the cash to buy chocolate eggs.
ReplyDeleteMother's Day ahead? Yes, you guessed it. And there are always birthdays, all through the year.
So... I blame the calendar. Less events, less causes of crime, I say.
I think it's more to do with idiot stories like this one bandying figures of £30k for nicking the lead of a church roof.
ReplyDeleteLast I looked (last few weeks) scrap lead was fetching about 50p a kilo down the scrapers. If my arithmetic is correct and it is, £30k worth of lead would weigh about 60 tonnes (about 4 artic loads).
Some numb nut friends of my mates son got nicked with half a lockup garage full of nicked lead the other week. It took 4 police vans to cart away their ill gotten, and the princely sum it was worth? About £250, thing is these dipshits thought were millionaires!!
Wonder where they got an idea like that? I wouldn't be journos pulling figures like £30k out their arses for a nights work nicking the lead of the church roof would it?
From a certain "downmarket" tabloid today:
ReplyDelete"Robbers who left their getaway motorbike running outside a store they were holding up in Rome, ran outside to find that it had been stolen"
I put this story on IG so I apologise if you've read it already,but it is true and funny.
ReplyDeleteI am a PC and I got called by Mrs Nice who saw a white scrote steal a manhole cover from the park behind her house.She saw them get-away in a car being driven by an old Asian male.She took the number down which was slightly wrong but I juggled it around and traced it.
I went to the owners address and he was a cab driver and he was crapping himself.He said the crim had phoned his company to collect him from the park.The cabbie told me that he had taken the crim to a local scrap-yard we know is well used by thieves.I made the cabbie come with me to check out his story.He was right,I got a copy of the receipt from the scrappy.He got £14 for it. I asked the driver "where did you drop him to after?".The cabbie said " I made him walk,the fare was £15 and he didn't have enough money".So this criminal mastermind had lost a £ on the deal,or so I thought....he only gave the driver £4 and promised to drop the money into his office later.The cabbie wasn't happy and took his name,address and mobile number.All of which were correct!!I also checked with the cab office later and he was a regular customer.I went round his house a few times later in the shift without luck....an early swoop is expected this week though.
Jaded
"Had the theft occurred in the build up to Easter, they would have wanted the cash to buy chocolate eggs."
ReplyDeleteAnd their brief would have obligingly offered it as a 'mitigation'.
"I think it's more to do with idiot stories like this one bandying figures of £30k for nicking the lead of a church roof."
It seems urban myths are being made with greater and greater frequency.
"From a certain "downmarket" tabloid today..."
Heh!
"I put this story on IG so I apologise if you've read it already,but it is true and funny."
They do say it's mostly the dim ones that get caught. I guess they're not wrong!