A Walton pensioner was locked up for four years after handling £108k worth of stolen goods including a tractor, sweets, chocolate and shampoo.
George Whitelock, 67, was jailed alongside prolific offender Leon Bresnahan, 39, after police found the tractor and two trailers containing £27k worth of confectionary and £69k worth of cosmetics in a Bootle lock-up rented by Whitelock.
Whitelock, of Hampden Street, Walton, pleaded guilty to three counts of handling stolen goods while Bresnahan, of Little Heyes, Everton, who has 64 convictions for 166 offences including burglary, was jailed for 12 months after admitting two counts.
George Whitelock, 67, of Hampden Street, Walton
The court heard a third man, Dean Jennings, 30, of no fixed address, had also admitted handling stolen goods but the crown allowed the charges to lie on file due to him facing a lengthy prison sentence for other matters.
As the guilty men were taken down the pensioner’s family, watching from the public gallery, shouted: “He should grass them up. He didn’t do it, he is taking the blame.”
Lloyd Morgan, prosecuting, told how Whitelock entered into a 12-month lease on a storage unit in Strand Road, Bootle , in May 2014 “for items to sell at car boot sales”.
The first theft linked to the pair took place on October 29, 2014, when a red Volvo tractor worth £12,500 vanished from a farmyard in Aspatria, Cumbria.
The court heard the owner John McNichol lost two days’ work, and was forced to buy a replacement.
Leon Bresnahan, 39, of Little Heyes, Everton
Mr Morgan said the confectionary was stolen from TWA Logistics in Bromborough in the early hours of November 11, 2014, when another tractor unit was used to hook up to a trailer and drive it out of the centre.
The final theft took place on November 29, 2014, at the DHL centre in Portal Way, Fazakerley , when another trailer containing cosmetics was pinched from the premises.
But a tracking system led management to Strand Road, which was the trailer’s last known location.
When the premises were searched, officers found the trailers, the tractors and the missing confectionary and cosmetics.
Kenneth Grant, defending, said: “Mr Whitelock recognises he is getting a little old in the tooth for offending of this type.”
Anthony O’Donohue. representing Bresnahan, told the court his client had been a “habitual nuisance” but was not a sophisticated crook.
Judge Alan Conrad, QC said: “These offences reflect handling of stolen goods on a commercial scale.”
No-one has been convicted of carrying out the thefts.
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Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/