Alexander Stewart and his sons jailed for £30,000 theft

A father and his two sons have been jailed after they went on a carefully planned two day expedition to steal £30,000 of catalytic converters in Devon.

Alexander Stewart and his sons Johnathan and Frederick were found heading away from the South West in a car which was so full of the valuable vehicle parts there was barely enough room for them to sit.

They spent two days in the region during which they stole 15 converters in raids on three yards in Plymouth and five in Exeter.

The family was arrested by police at Strensham Services near Worcester with the converters in the boot and back seat of their Ford Mondeo.

All came from Mercedes Sprinter vans but they claimed they had found them by chance at the side of the road. Number plate and phone checks later showed they had been in Devon.

Alexander Stewart, aged 48, Johnathan, aged 22 and Frederick, aged 21, all from Roach Vale, Rochdale, admitted conspiracy to steal and were each jailed for 18 months by Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, at Exeter Crown Court.

The judge told them:”This was a planned expedition to steal catalytic converters in Plymouth and Exeter. It was a professional crime carried out for money, but not a very sophisticated one.

“You were stopped on your way back to Rochdale and the photographs show the converters were not exactly concealed.”

Adrian Chaplin, prosecuting, said the family were stopped with the 15 converters in the Mondeo car and claimed they had found them by the roadside.

He said police investigations showed they had been stolen in a series of raids on Plymouth Removers, in the Parkway Industrial Estate, the Plymouth City Council yard, Puttnams on the Langage Business Park, all in Plymouth and all on the night on 30 April  2012.

The family then moved on to Exeter the next night where they struck five times on the Sowton estate, targeting Milford and Sons, Devon Salvage, Stovax, DPD, and the Royal Mail depot.

All the catalytic converters came from Mercedes Sprinters and were worth between £20,000 to £30,000.

Mr Chaplin said:”You can imagine the damage and inconvenience for these businesses having their vehicles off the road and being put to the time and trouble of repairing them.

“The specific nature of the items being targeted shows quite how well planned this must have been, which is why it amounts to a conspiracy.”

Greg Richardson, for Alexander, said he is a lowly paid gardener who was struggling to bring up his family because his wife suffers from depression and one of his younger sons from a debilitating disease.

Paul Rowsell and Rupert Taylor, for the two brothers, said the operation was planned but was not a sophisticated crime because the family had not tried to hide their use of phones or escape police number plate recognition systems.