Gang ‘siphoned £1m of fuel from pipeline’
Trial told of raid under Nick Clegg estate
A GANG stole more than £1million of fuel from pipes running across the country, a court has heard.
Roger Gull, 51, and Thomas Campbell, 58, allegedly tapped into a pipeline under the grounds of the then country residence of Nick Clegg.
Jurors yesterday heard the pair set up a compound on farmland there to process fuel to be collected in lorries.
Prosecutor Dale Sullivan said: “Roger Gull and Thomas Campbell were involved with a group of criminals who compromised those pipelines and stole fuel. Incursions were targeted all over the UK and netted the group millions of litres of fuel.”
REFINERY
He told jurors the fuel’s value was “well in excess of £1million”. The gang allegedly siphoned it off from the network in Kent, Essex, Hampshire, Cheshire and Northamptonshire, between June 2013 and November 2014. Bankrupt Gull set up a number of the sites and Campbell transported fuel, Maidstone crown court heard. A 2014 raid of Oveney Green Farm, at Chevening House estate in Sevenoaks, Kent, uncovered an “impromptu refinery”. Mr Clegg, then Deputy Prime Minister, lived at the estate at the time. Gull, of Rainham, Essex, and Campbell, of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, both deny the claims. Gull and his son Ryan Gull, 28, also of Rainham, also deny money laundering. The trial continues.