Man stole £27k of metal and sold for £200!
A 22 year old man stole up to £27,000 of mining equipment and sold it as scrap for a minimal £200 it was told.
“The defendant said he sold the metal for £200,” prosecutor Ellie Morgan told the court.
“The payment was for the load on the van as opposed to how much it was worth in its weight.”
This was said to be around £1,500.
“That value conflicts with the victim’s valuation of the equipment, which was around £27,000.”
“This is something of a mess, quite frankly,” said defence solicitor Gavin Rofer. “You will have heard Mr Vyce plead guilty to an offence of stealing scrap metal.
“That’s what he has pleaded guilty to but the prosecution is trying to suggest this is something other than scrap metal.
“The charge should either be increased, or the offence to which he has pleaded guilty is not the one he has actually committed.
“The prosecution are saying there was some 10 to 15 tonnes of metal.
“Let’s have some common sense; since it was put to this defendant that he made one journey in a seven-and-a-half tonne flat-bed truck which has a payload of three tonnes, the possibility of taking ten tonnes of metal would not have happened unless the Vauxhall Vectra which came with him had a large and very capable roof rack.
“They want the penny, the bun — and the bakery.”
Vyce also pleaded guilty to driving without a licence or insurance, offences which happened in Merthyr Tydfil on April 20.
