Pair jailed for bid to steal from cashpoint near Shrewsbury
Two would-be thieves who tampered with a cash machine at a shop near Shrewsbury have been jailed.
Aurelian Margarit, 37, and Paul Florian Miu, 35, were arrested after people in the area saw them attach an implement to the ATM at the Spar store in Forge Lane, Baschurch.
The Romanian nationals were sentenced at Shrewsbury Crown Court after it was revealed both had a long history of convictions for theft.
Prosecuting barrister Kevin Jones said: “Members of the public were outside Spar at Baschurch when they observed that a man was acting suspiciously at the cashpoint.
“They were of the view that he was tampering with the machine with something in his hand. The prosecution accepts that this was Mr Margarit. The tampering was where the cash would have come out and it thought that some cash did come out.”
Mr Jones said when the pair were searched, police found a ‘Lebanese Loop’ type implement, an item commonly used in cashpoint thefts, on Margarit.
The barrister told the court that when the article is attached to ATMs it creates a fault and tricks the machine into releasing cash.
Both men jointly admitted an offence of attempted theft on August 28 and Margarit also admitted an offence of possession of an article.
Mr Brendan Reedy, defending Margarit, said: “He was given this item by someone in London who told him he could use it to get money from cash machines. The device fools the the cash point into believing that the cash has not been properly dispensed.
“He tried it and it didn’t work, hence the guilty plea for attempted theft.”
For the offences Margarit, a mechanic, from Bradford, was jailed for 16 months.
Debra White, defending Miu a tattoo artist from Hounslow, said he had been in the UK for three years and had been given a suspended 18-week jail term for attempted theft of £250 just 26 days prior to carrying out this latest offence. Miu was jailed for 12 months.
Sentencing the pair Judge Peter Barrie told them. “No sensible explanation has been given has to how the two of you who live in Bradford and Middlesex found yourselves in a small village outside Shrewsbury.”
