Tool thieves fled in charity’s van
School and bike hire firm also targeted
Two men from Maidstone have been jailed for their roles in burglaries at a charity, school and popular beauty spot.
In March 2020, staff at a conservation group based in Ruskin Park, London, discovered a shipping container on their site had been broken into overnight.
The thieves had stolen 27 power tools and a generator, before leaving in one of the charity’s vans.
Later the same day, a patrol stopped a different van in Heath Road, Maidstone, containing Jason Holloway, Davey Chambers and Charlie Hilden, as well as a large number of power tools and a generator.
Holloway claimed he had bought them at an auction and on a social media website. The officers could not identify where the tools had come from at that stage but, suspecting they were stolen, seized them while further inquiries were completed.
On April 16, a cycle hire business at Bedgebury Pintetum had 23 mountain bikes stolen from a shipping container overnight. CCTV at the scene identified a van used to take bikes from the scene and this was later found by police in Maidstone.
Examination of the vehicle found it had false number plates
and was in fact the van stolen from the charity in Ruskin Park.
Investigators were able to prove that Holloway had been in the vicinity of both burglaries when they were committed. Police seized clothing matching items worn by one of the offenders on CCTV footage at the Bedgebury break-in during a raid of his home.
Holloway, of James Whatman Way, Maidstone; Chambers, of Oriel Grove, Maidstone, and Hilden, of Hampstead Lane, Nettlestead, were later charged with the burglary at Ruskin Park and theft of the charity’s van.
Holloway was also charged with the break-in at Bedgebury and Chambers with a burglary
at Wrotham Secondary School in January 2020.
The three pleaded guilty to all the counts at Maidstone Crown Court.
Holloway, 32, was jailed for three years and four months; Chambers, 32, was jailed for two years and six months, and Hilden, 41, was given a twoyear sentence suspended for two years.
Investigating officer DC Alex Peacock said: “These men are prolific criminals who have been preying on premises during the hours of darkness. The losses suffered by some of those targeted will have had a considerable impact on their ability to continue trading.”