Workers jailed for stealing £140,000 jewellery
A WEST Yorkshire businessman said his life has been “destroyed” after two of his employees stole a £140,000 collection of jewellery from a workplace safe.
The uninsured valuables kept in a safe at RA Technology Limited in Brighouse were a pension pot for managing director Mike Noble and his wife Jan.
But this did not stop Connor McCaffrey and Jordan Nettleship using a key from Mr Noble’s office to steal the contents and £3,000 over three days last August.
Speaking to yesterday, Mr Noble said: “We were putting the jewellery in a safe as our rainy-day fund and as part of the pension pot.
“All my working life I’ve treated employees as best as I can, as family. For them to do that to us was unbelievable.”
The safe was also where the couple stored his wife’s engagement ring and wedding ring, the latter of which had belonged to Mr Noble’s grandmother.
“It was an historic, family heirloom that was going to be handed onto my children one day and that’s gone,” Mr Noble said.
Bradford Crown Court heard on Monday how Nettleship put a piece of paper over a CCTV camera, but the pair’s discussions about stealing from the safe were recorded by other equipment.
Mr Noble, who lives in Halifax, said: “They talked about putting the empty ring boxes back so I wouldn’t expect a theft had occurred. It was unbelievable – the betrayal of trust.”
Nettleship, 24, of Park Square, Northowram, Halifax, branded Mr Noble “a compulsive liar” after he was arrested.
And 21-year-old McCaffrey, of Buxton Street, Lee Mount, Halifax, went on to falsely suggest that their victim had been trying to defraud his insurance company.
However, none of the items had been insured as Mr Noble believed the office’s security measures would be more than enough.
Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie said McCaffrey accepted being “up to his eyeballs in debt”, but he denied stealing from the safe.
In March the pair both pleaded guilty to the theft, although they disputed the value of the stolen property until recently.
Judge David Hatton QC was urged to consider suspended jail sentences because of their previous character and guilty pleas, but jailed them for 22 months.
They are due to face further proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act later this year.
Mr Noble welcomed the jail terms, but added: “They were utterly without remorse. They were in court laugh and joking. They thought they were going to get away with suspended sentences.
“They’ve destroyed our lives though. They really have.”