Three Telford men sentenced for rural thefts of power tools

Cornelius Price, 35 of Lodge Road Caravan Site, Donnington Wood; Aaron Davies, 29 of Hayward Avenue, Donnington, and Alfie Price, brother of Cornelius, 21, "targeted" two containers in separate locations on April 28 this year, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

Andrew Baker, prosecuting, told the court the first theft had taken place in Preston Gubbals, north of Shrewsbury, after the trio broke into a shipping container belonging to a professional carpenter.

He said the stolen items, a Wacker Neuson and Stihl saw, were valued at £2,500.

All three were recorded in the act on CCTV, the court heard.

Mr Baker said: "By 4pm on April 28, in Whitchurch, a builder finished work about 12 miles from the other site. He had been renovating a building and locked away tools in two containers and moved his 13-ton digger in front to prevent access."

However, Mr Baker said that when the builder checked his CCTV that night, he saw the three defendants move the digger and break into the containers, making off with a heavy duty breaker, a compactor and petrol disc cutter, valued at more than £7,000.

Mr Baker said all three men were quickly picked up by officers from the rural division of West Mercia Police after an officer recognised two of them who were "familiar to him as a rural officer".

All three admitted the two charges of burglary at hearing in August this year.

Mr Baker told Judge Anthony Lowe that the men had "targeted isolated rural premises".

Judge Lowe told the three defendants that the burglaries were "undoubtedly researched" and "planned" and that all three had gone "equipped".

He jailed Cornelius Price for 12 months due to his "bad record of dishonesty", but gave Alfie Price a nine-month sentence, suspended for 28 months, and ordered he do 100 hours of unpaid community work.

Aaron Davies was also given a nine-month suspended sentence, suspended for 28 months, and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid community work.