Raider of the stuffed ark is spared jail over £100,000 theft
A BURGLAR who stole £100,000-worth of stuffed exotic animals — including a chimpanzee in a top hat — from a taxidermist to the stars has been spared jail.
Jason Hopwood, 47, swiped
18 of the antique animals after using angle grinders to break in to specialist taxidermist Alexis Turner’s Wimbledon warehouse.
Among the items stolen in the unusual burglary were a king penguin, a crocodile, two full African lion mounts, a zebra, and a flamingo.
Mr Turner, who counts Ed Sheeran, Britney Spears, and Helena Bonham Carter among his celebrity clients, has a reputation as one of Britain’s top taxidermists, and his animals have featured in a host of TV shows and films including the James Bond and Harry Potter movies.
He said in the wake of the burglary that he believed the thieves may have targeted a rhinoceros head which was visible from the window of his London Taxidermy premises, though it was only a fibreglass cast.
Following the raid, on March 1 last year, police issued a nationwide appeal for information, and received an anonymous tip that the van used had been abandoned in Stapleford Abbots in Essex.
All 18 stolen animals, worth an estimated £100,000, had been left in the back of the
Ford Transit Luton van.
Hopwood, the owner of the van, said when quizzed by police that he had sold it on and knew nothing of the burglary. But he was caught out by a parking ticket issued to the van when it was parked outside his home on the day of the raid.
Phone evidence showed Hopwood had driven the van — using fake numberplates — on the day of the burglary. CCTV of the break-in showed at least four men in the van as it passed through security gates at around 7.20pm. They used an angle grinder to cut through a padlock and then forced open the front door to the warehouse in the Wimbledon Stadium Business Centre.
Hopwood, of Drummond Road in Romford, Essex, pleaded guilty to burglary and using a fake numberplate, and was sentenced yesterday to 21 months in prison suspended for two years. He was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service.