Three admit part in £47k Sherburn-in-Elmet metal crime (From York Press)

Three admit part in £47k Sherburn-in-Elmet metal crime

2:10pm Monday 9th February 2009 in News By Megi Rychlikova, megi.rychlikova@thepress.co.uk

THIEVES got away with metal equipment worth more than £47,000 from a Sherburn-in-Elmet engineering firm in a night-time raid, York Crown Court heard.

But police used CCTV to identify two flatback vehicles used in the crime, and tracked some of the loot to a scrap metal business where it had been sold a day after it was stolen from Omec Engineering Ltd.

The owners of the vehicles, Mark James Riley, 24, a father-of-two, and Desmond Peter Beaumont, 33, a father-of-six, both of Wakefield, were arrested and accused of stealing the metal.

But the Crown Prosecution Service accepted pleas of assisting in disposing of the stolen metal after both said they had lent their vehicles on the night of the crime and had not been driving them at the time.

Father-to-be Martin Dylan Griffiths, 24, of Wakefield, also admitted assisting in disposing of the stolen metal. He and Riley were each ordered to do 120 hours’ unpaid work and pay £340 prosecution costs. Beaumont’s case was adjourned for three months for him to finish another court sentence before starting one for the metal offence.

Rob Galley, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the firm stored metal items within a secure, fenced area. On the night of July 6 and 7, 100 racks each worth £250 used in the mining industry, 70 other similar mining equipment items each worth £300 and various tubing and forklift extensions were stolen from the area. Together they were assessed as being worth £47,800. Some of the equipment was very distinctive and painted bright orange.

But the raid was captured on CCTV and on 9 July, police visited Hawbury Waste plant in Wakefield. Invoices there revealed that on July 7, the two vehicles had brought 12,900 kg of metal including the bright orange equipment, and sold it as scrap metal for £2,565. The loads were not all of the stolen metal.

For the three, Simon Batiste said they were not the thieves and had “limited involvement” in the crime.

The three defendants had been “used” by others who had got the profits of the crime.