Violinist who played for the Queen helped stage burglary
A CLASSICAL violinist who played at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee helped to stage a £25,000 burglary while housesitting for a friend, a court has heard.
Victoria Yellop, 34, reported the break-in to police, claiming she had returned from a night out to find the front door and window smashed.
However, Maidstone Crown Court heard that neighbours had seen Yellop at the house as the stolen items were loaded into a vehicle.
More than 40 designer baseball caps, two Tag Heuer watches, a Rolex and an Armani watch, bottles of champagne, several pairs of sunglasses, two guitars, an expensive microphone, designer aftershaves and cash were stolen.
The jury heard that Yellop had been “coerced and dominated” by her violent boyfriend, Mark James, who had bullied her into helping him to commit the crime.
Police searched the home that Yellop shared with James in Langton Green, near Tunbridge Wells, and found cash, watches, electrical equipment, cocaine worth £1,000 and drugs paraphernalia including a “tick list” of deals written in Yellop’s diary. Many of the stolen goods were found in a storage unit. Police also discovered a safe containing cocaine, a cutting agent, scales and weights, which Yellop insisted was for personal use.
Bridget Todd, prosecuting, said: “She said she was rationing it into small amounts so she could limit her intake as she had been snorting cocaine since the age of 14, when she was at a private girls’ school.”
Yellop, now of Hildenborough, Kent, admitted perverting the course of justice, theft and being concerned in the supply of a class A drug and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.
James was jailed for five years at a previous hearing. He admitted theft, causing actual bodily harm, possession of a class A drug with intent to supply and an unrelated road-rage attack.