For the last two years, detectives in Monmouthshire have been tracking a gang of offenders, wanted for the thefts of agricultural equipment; Here we tell you how they did it…
Overnight on 21st April 2010 and 17th May 2010 two large scale burglaries took place at Frank Sutton’s Agricultural and Grounds Care Equipment, Raglan with approximately £30,000 worth of lawn mowers being stolen.
Soon after, a lawn mower was advertised for sale on eBay which Gwent Police recovered and confirmed as one of the stolen mowers. Another stolen mower was later recovered, again having being listed on eBay.
Various other equipment relating to other burglaries around the Gwent area, and a further two lawn mowers relating to the burglaries at Frank Suttons were located at farms in the Monmouth and Pontypool areas.
This led officers to arrest Gareth Gibbings and Daniel Cameron and two others on suspicion of burglary and handling stolen goods. During a hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on 29 January 2013 all four suspects pleaded guilty to the charges with Gibbings and Cameron being sentenced to 3 years 6 months prison.
Monmouthshire Detective Sergeant Allan Davies who was responsible for the investigation said, ‘This case has been on-going for over a year and a huge amount of work has gone into securing these convictions.
‘This was a high value, organised burglary and we’re very happy that these prolific offenders have been brought to justice.’