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Worsthorne and Colne men jailed for would-be jewellery heist
FOUR man have been jailed for a total of almost eight years in prison for plotting to steal hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of jewellery in Lancashire.
Richard Wynn, Andrew Thornton, John Hind and John Fletcher were sentenced today at Preston Crown Court.
All four admitted conspiracy to steal on what was to be the first day of their trial at Manchester Crown Court on Monday.
Wynn (35), of Ravenoak Lane, Worsthorne, was jailed for 28 months. This is to run consecutive to the 10 years and four months he recieved for his part in a wider drugs conspiracy.
Thornton (23), of Stone Street, Bolton, was sentenced to 16 months in prison, again to run consecutive to the 20 months he received for his part in the drugs conspiracy.
Hind (53), of Hawley Street, Colne was jailed for 22 months and Fletcher (55) was sentenced to 28 months in prison.
In May 2009, Fletcher posed as the owner of a wholesale jewellery business called Fawcetts Jewellers and contacted the manager of Nelson Jewellers, based in the Birmingham area.
Fletcher, who was purporting to be Mr Chris Townsend, told the manager he was involved in the insurance industry and wanted to buy a large amount of jewellery from her. He arranged a meeting with her in Preston the following day.
During the meeting, Fletcher said he worked with insurance companies replacing jewellery as a result of claims. He said he needed to carry a large amount of stock and wanted to buy 60,000-worth of diamond jewellery including rings, earrings and bracelets – the wholesale value of this jewellery would be over 120,000.
Fletcher asked for the jewellery to be supplied to him on a credit agreement but the manager of the company refused, saying she had only just met him and payment would need to be provided in full.
The manager later sent Fletcher an e-mail giving the bank details of the company so payment could be made. Further e-mails were sent between Fletcher and the manager where Fletcher said his annual purchase of jewellery would be in excess of 1,000,000 and, as such, he required substantial discount.
On July 6th last year, Fletcher, purporting to be a man called Phillip Smythe, contacted the manager of Nelson Jewellers and said he was having a buying meeting on Thursday, July 9th at Syke Mills, in Belthorn Road, Blackburn which the manager agreed to attend.
Since the time Fletcher had first made contact with Nelson Jewellers, telephone analysis and surveillance shows Fletcher, Wynn, Thornton and Hind had all been in contact with one another.
In particular, on July 2nd, Wynn and Hind are seen to drive to the proposed meeting place in a remote location in Belthorn Road, close to junction 5 of the M65. On July 7th, Wynn, Hind, Thornton and another man all met at the same location in Belthorn Road to discuss the theft of the jewellery they planned to carry out.
On the day of the proposed meeting, Wynn and Hind drove to the Heywood area to buy a BMW to carry out the theft of the jewellery. The vehicle was parked in a cul-de-sac close to Belthorn Road by Hind ready to carry out the offence.
Later that day Hind was seen getting into a Transit van, driven by Wynn, carrying a 3ft. crowbar. At the time when the representative from Nelson Jewellers was due to arrive at the location in Belthorn Road, Wynn dropped Hind off at the cul-de-sac where he put the crow bar into the BMW.
This vehicle was then driven by Hind onto Belthorn Road ready to carry out the offence. Telephone analysis shows the sequence of calls between the four men as they were preparing to carry out the theft of the jewellery.
As the day wore on, the manager of Nelson Jewellers contacted Fletcher to say she couldn't make their meeting and would have to rearrange. If she had turned up to the meeting she would have been in possession of jewellery with a retail value in excess of 700,000. It was the gang's intention to meet the manager and steal that jewellery.
The four men were arrested in December, interviewed and charged with conspiracy to steal.
Det. Insp. Simon Brooksbank, who led the investigation, said: "I am pleased these men will be spending a long time behind bars. This was a carefully planned theft and these men had every intention of enticing an innocent and lone woman to a remote meeting spot with the sole intention of stealing thousands of pounds worth of jewellery from her.
"Our observations show one of the men would have potentially been armed with a crow bar and had the group been able to execute its plan who knows if or how this weapon would have been used. Thankfully, the manager of the jewellery company didn't turn up for the meeting otherwise the consequences could have been devastating.
"This case should send a strong warning to people who think they are above the law and can use any means they wish to fund the lavish lifestyles they desire – it will not be tolerated, you will be targeted and you will be brought to justice and sent to prison for a long time."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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