Mechanic stripped stolen Land Rovers

A MECHANIC who stripped parts Now he has been ordered to from Land Rovers stolen by travelrepay more than £39,000 under the lers is facing a bill for nearly Proceeds of Crime Act. £40,000. The original hearing, at Warwick

Ian Turner told a court he was Crown Court, heard that Turner pressurised into working on the told police he knowingly bought 4x4s and was attacked on one stolen vehicles, mainly Land Rovoccasion. ers, from the “travelling community”.Partsfrom15LandRovers,a Range Rover Evoque, Audi RS4, a In a second interview he Ford Fiesta and a motorbike were changed his story, saying he was found at his rented workshop at a working for them, rather than buyfarm in Claverdon, Warwickshire. ing the vehicles, and had felt under

Police raided the site after folpressure to break up ones they lowing a tracker fitted inside a brought to the farm. Land Rover Discovery, which was Jonathan Coode, stolen in Moseley in September said: “This is not a last year. car-ringing activity.

Turner, 50, of Jubilee Avenue, “What happened is that the travRedditch, was handed a two-year elling people would steal a car and suspended prison sentence in July, bring it to the workshop. after admitting converting criminal “There was a considerable property. amount of coercion, and the defending, conventional defendant was on one occasion assaulted. His wife advised him to give up the enterprise and move away from the farm, but they kept coming.

“It was a combination of carrot and stick, being offered the opportunity to purchase vehicles of reasonably high value for a few hundred pounds, but also an element of intimidation.

“I concede he was a vital cog, no pun intended, but he was not the driving force.”

Sentencing Turner, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano had told him: “I don’t know how it started, but the fact is you kept going for over a year, providing for these people a valuable service.

“I accept it was not your operation, and it was not your idea, but you played an essential part.”