Kent Airport jet engine thieves jailed
03.05.07
Thieves who thought they were stealing air-conditioning units but were in fact stealing jet engines were jailed this week. The two men, with two others, stole jet engines worth nearly £300,000 from Kent Airport (Manston) just before Christmas last year.
Mark Cooper, 37, broke into a locked warehouse on an industrial estate at Kent Airport for the first time on December 5 last year. With another three men, he used lifting equipment and a lorry to steal two jet engines worth about £200,000.
Cooper returned to the compound, used by African International Airways, two weeks later with codefendant Rodney Matthews, 47, and another two men to steal a third engine, worth £90,000. But the police caught them red-handed as they tried to drive the lorry away after setting off an alarm in the building.
Canterbury Crown Court heard that both men, from Tooting in south London, immediately admitted the thefts and said they had been stolen to order. They told police that between them they were being paid less than £1,000 for the job and desperately needed the money for Christmas presents for their kids.
Oliver Saxby, defending, told the court that both men had no idea they were stealing jet engines. They thought they were taking air-conditioning units. Both men have a long list of previous convictions and have been in and out of prison.
Sentencing the pair, Judge Adele Williams said: 'These offences bear all the hallmarks of professional thefts.' Cooper was jailed for 30 months after admitting two counts of theft. Matthews was sent to prison for 18 months after admitting a single charge of theft.
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