Two jailed over Durham Tees Valley Airport duty free theft
09.11.07
Two Polish men who stole 69 bottles of ladies' fragrance worth £2,276 from the duty free shop at Durham Tees Valley Airport have been jailed for six months.
Polish farmers Kamil Legan, 23, and Bartlomiej Wilczab, 32, were removed from a bmi flight to Heathrow by suspicious cabin crew, who called police and removed their luggage. The men admitted that they had stolen the Chanel perfume from the Alpha Airport Shopping outlet.
As previously reported, they were returning to their farms near the German border via Berlin and claimed they were trying to recoup the cost of a failed business trip to the UK. But a detective spotted that Mr . Wilczab was wearing a jacket with the pockets ripped out in the style of shoplifters.
Graham Silvester, defending, told Teesside Crown Court that the perfume counter was unattended when they helped themselves to the bottles. He said that the coat was bought at a jumble sale, and that the men had cooperated with police, had been in custody for 43 days and had no previous convictions.
However the judge, Recorder Martin Bethel QC, told the men: 'It has been suggested to me that this offence was committed on the spur of the moment, I do not believe that that was the case. You were equipped with a jacket adapted to make things easy to steal, and you took a very large quantity of perfume of a very substantial value. I believe that this was planned and deliberate theft.' Legan from Ul Sikouslaepo and Wilczab from Desziznr were each jailed for six months.
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg it | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
To book a durham tees valley airport hotel or durham tees valley airport car parking at the lowest price click on these links to durham tees valley airport parking and durham tees valley airport hotel price comparison websites.