Car wash worker stole from furniture company
JON MACPHERSON
ACAR wash worker stole £ 2,665 worth of tools from a Valley shop to pay for his family to travel to the UK, a court heard.
Leonard Marcu worked at the car wash outside Village Pine on Newchurch Road in Bacup and used a key left outside to burgle the building.
Prosecutor Tracey Yates told Burnley Magistrates Court how police were called to the premises shortly after 10pm on July 11 after a neighbour reported seeing two men carrying tools and tool boxes along Newchurch Road.
When officers arrived at the scene both men ‘dropped their tools and ran’ with one unknown offender escaping into a ‘ wooded area’, the court heard.
Marcu, who was dressed fully in black and wearing latex gloves, fled down a side alley and was found hiding in a corner behind a wheelie bin.
The court heard how Village Pine owner Michael Naylor was contacted and confirmed the stolen tools belonged to his business.
All the tools were recovered however a sander and saw worth £500 were damaged in the incident.
Miss Yates told the court that Mr Naylor rents out the space in front of the shop and is used as a hand car wash.
No entry was forced into the premises and two padlocks were found on Newchurch Road used to secure the metal shutters.
Numerous other tools were found wrapped in a blanket in the boot of a Fiat Punto parked nearby.
Miss Yates said that when the defendant was interviewed by police he fully admitted the offence.
She said: “He did it because he wanted to bring his wife and child over from Romania.”
Miss Yates told the court that the victim was ‘deliberately targeted’ and Marcu was going to sell the tools to raise money.
Marcu, 25, of Morley Street, Rochdale, pleaded guilty to burglary and was given a four-month community order with a curfew requirement between 7pm and 7am and ordered to pay £300 compensation.
Dave Leach, defend- ing, said Marcu is ‘genuinely remorseful’ and deserved credit for his early guilty plea.
He said: “It was a folly that was doomed from the start.
“It wasn’t the defendant’s place of work he took the items from.
“It was an adjoining building within the same compound.
“The reason he embarked on this foolish enterprise was because he had not seen his wife and child for two years.”