Saturday, June 1, 2013

A Stolen Grid Cover Sold To A Scrapyard For Peanuts

By Ladonna Chambers


Metal thieves stole a very expensive quantity of drain covers within six months in a settlement in the Manchester area. Thieves had wrenched off more than a thousand covers in an act that endangered the lives of automobilists, pedestrians and bikers. Apparently, they weren't afraid of being called grid cover thieves. The iron grates fetched only a few pounds as scrap but cost a lot of money to the local council which had to replace them. That's taxpayers' money, but the people who stole them didn't care.

The magnitude of the thefts in question became obvious when one of the thieves was halted. The man was evidently known as "the grid man" at one scrapyard he operated in. The judge, while handing out a 12 month sentence said that he wanted to send out the harshest possible message to those who might think of doing what the defendant had done.

The accused who had a construction and roofing business was caught selling five iron grids stolen from the town to a scrap dealer in the area. The convict was lucky that he was prosecuted for stealing only 5 drain covers. Individuals at the scrapyard stated that he had traveled at least 78 times. The accused attracted the wrong kind of attention when local residents saw him removing manhole covers and they noted down the number of his vehicle, a Ford Transit. This helped the police in arresting him quickly.

Police officers who investigated the case said they had found six iron grates at the back of this vehicle. The accused apparently blocked all questioning by his interrogators with a persistent denial of wrong doing. But the police secured a breakthrough on the morning of his trial at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, when the arrested man broke down and admitted. The accused finally turned in a plea of guilty to the charge of stealing five iron grids in the period between September 2010 and May last year.

The counsel for the criminal prosecution said the court that the accused went so often to the scrap dealer that he was recognized as "the grid man" to the workers of the firm. He also said the court how a thousand grid covers had been slipped from the streets of Stockport in just about six months. Counsel for the defence told the court that her client had acted stupidly and was trying to pay his employees by stealing and selling manhole covers.

She also let the court know that the arrested man had paid a heavy price for his misdemeanor by spending Christmas in Jail, awaiting sentencing and that he was repentant and said he wouldn't want to land up in front of this court again. The man was apparently a history sheeter and had faced prosecution for dishonesty and fraud.

While condemning, the jurist said that there was nothing to suggest that the defendant had slipped more than 5 iron grids. The judge was clear that he was not being built a scapegoat. There was no proposal either that there had been any wrongful conduct on the portion of the scrap dealer.

A spokesman for the scrapyard said they did not employ suspicious people. They did not like the idea of having stolen metal on their premises. The police said anybody stealing a public good, like a grid cover, would be dealt with very harshly.




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