Jailed, prison workers in £100k theft racket
PAIR STOLE CDs, DVDs AND GAMES THAT ACCOMPLICE THEN SOLD ONLINE
A CROOK helped net thousands of pounds by selling electronic goods stolen from Forest Bank jail by prison staff.
Charlie Corrigan, 27, sold the DVDs and games on Ebay during a long-running racket which netted more than £100,000.
His accomplices Carl Byron, 37, and Anthony Bradbury, 30, both worked at the Salford prison and helped themselves to thousands of items while working as security officers.
Security analyst Bradbury boasted about being ‘the best thief in jail’ in one text message to his boss Byron. While Byron, an anti-corruption officer, once wrote to Bradbury: “You have more deliveries than HMV here.”
During the six-year scam, Byron was tasked with searching his fellow prison officers for drugs and contraband in his role in the corruption prevention team.
Both Bradbury and Byron are now serving time behind bars after admitting offences of theft and money laundering.
Corrigan, who is the brother of Bradbury’s then partner, was the last of the three to be sentenced.
Unlike his accomplices, Corrigan escaped a prison term after admitting money laundering. He was instead handed a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years. He must also carry out 150 hours of community service.
Police officers began investigating Byron and Bradbury in May 2017.
The investigation revealed a series of chummy and sometimes affectionate text messages between the pair, often signed off with kisses to one another, Manchester Crown Court previously heard. In one text, Bradbury said to Byron: “We are the best team in jail and you made me from a boy to a man. The best thief in jail.” The scam was operated between 2011 and 2017, with Bradbury joining in 2015.
Thousands of CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, Xbox and PlayStation games had been brought into the jail as part of a legitimate prison industries contract for inmates to earn money repackaging the products.
Prosecutors say Byron and Bradbury would conduct searches of the shipments and then steal up to 100 items at a time, packing them into holdalls and simply walking them out of the prison.
Father-of-three Byron was responsible for organising the searches and knew they would never be stopped with the stolen items, because of the trusted positions they held in the prison. The items were sold on for large amounts on Ebay or in cash transactions.
According to prosecutors, Corrigan would ‘order’ popular and expensive titles such as FIFA and Game of Thrones from the two prison workers.
A Proceeds of Crime hearing is due to take place in the coming months to establish the money made through their ill gotten gains.
Senior crown prosecutor Rachael Barber said: “Both Byron and Bradbury abused the positions of trust they held at the prison. Byron was also part of the corruption prevention team within the prison and was said by senior management to be in ‘the most trusted position’ in the prison.
“Bradbury was said to look up to Byron and would do anything he asked. Both men took advantage of a scheme to provide inmates with work that helped them to earn a small amount of money in preparation for their release from prison. This offending was some of the most immoral and unfair I have come across. All three of the defendants involved have now been brought to justice, proving that this sort of enterprise never pays.”
Byron, of Manchester Road in Over Hulton, Bolton, was sentenced to two years and 10 months after pleading guilty to one count of theft and two counts of converting criminal property.
Bradbury, of Haslam Street in Bury, was jailed for two years and two months after pleading guilty to identical charges.