A mechanic who used stolen car parts to repair written-off vehicles to sell has been handed a suspended prison sentence, it has been reported.
Brian Robinson handled car parts worth thousands of pounds, which were stripped from stolen vehicles.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how four cars sold by Robinson online were found to contain parts from vehicles which had been stolen.
Joe Hedworth, prosecuting, told the court: “On four occasions the defendant purchased accident-damaged vehicles at auction to match stolen car parts removed from vehicles already stolen in burglaries.
“The vehicles were purchased according to available stolen car parts and he resold the accident-damaged vehicles via Gumtree.”
A Honda Jazz was stolen in a house burglary in June 2018 and the insurance company paid the owner £7,000.
Related: Mechanic’s stolen van found in field with £40k worth of tools missing
A similar vehicle which had been damaged was later repaired using stolen cars from the first vehicle and sold by Robinson for £3,000, below market value.
In July 2018 a Nissan Qashqai was stolen and insurers paid out more than £11,000.
A similar car sold by Robinson on Gumtree a month later for £8,000 was found to contain stolen parts from the first car.
The same month, a Nissan Qashqai and Juke were stolen and a similar model sold by Robinson for around £6,000 contained stolen parts.
Later in September 2018 a Hyundai ix35, which insurers paid out £11,000 for, was stolen and a similar vehicle was sold by Robinson, again containing stolen parts.
The stolen parts, when new, would have been worth around £37,000.
Related: Used car part thefts rife, insurance data shows
Robinson pleaded guilty to four counts of handling stolen goods and was sentenced to 12 months suspended for 18 months with 200 hours unpaid work and a three-month curfew between 9pm and 6am.
Sentencing him, Judge Tim Gittins said: “Whether your potential customers knew the vehicles had been repaired from being insurance write-offs is another matter.
“You, as the handler, created a market that means people steal items and burgle premises.
“In reality it’s the knowledge of the primary offences and the fact these cars were being stolen from house burglaries that the aggravating feature here, not the value.
“The fact is, the whole car had to be stolen for you to get some of those parts from them.
“You were engaging with other criminals and I accept that caused a level of fear in who you were working with.”
Dougal
The issue of a SUSPENDED sentence implies that either it is a minor crime or that such behavior is ‘normal’ in our trade.
That is worrying !