TWO men who posed as postal workers and stole watches worth £80,000 from a Royal Mail van in York city centre have been jailed.
Travelling criminals Peter Gairns and Ian Marshall were caught on CCTV camera watching a Special Delivery van as it pulled up in Clifford Street in March, Warwick Crown Court was told.
Marshall put on a high-visibility jacket and, while the driver was making deliveries, opened the van and took packages containing a number of high-value watches worth a total of £80,000, before walking away and removing the jacket.
Their VW Passat was picked up by an ANPR - automatic number plate recognition - camera on the road between Leeds and York at 7.18 that morning and making the return journey after the theft at 9.56 am, said prosecutor Ian Windridge.
He said checks showed they had made a similar run the previous day on what was ‘clearly a reconnaissance run.’
The Press revealed in March how watches taken in the York raid included a Rolex worth £35,000.
A York businessman, for whom the delivery was intended, said then that the loss threatened the survival of his business, adding: "It’s an absolute nightmare. I haven’t slept a wink.” He declined to comment yesterday.
Peter Gairns, 52, of Tavery Close, New Islington, Manchester, and Ian Marshall, 55, of Farnborough Road, Miles Platting, Manchester, both pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal Special Delivery parcels from Royal Mail vans and were both jailed for two years and eight months.
The court was told the two men stole jewellery and watches worth a total of £128,000 in three planned raids on Royal Mail delivery vans, including the one in York, but were caught when they targeted a fourth van.
Mr Windridge said the ‘sophisticated and well-planned thefts' had taken place over almost two years and came to an end when the two men were arrested in Stratford-upon-Avon in April.
They parked Marshall’s Passat in the town centre and Marshall, wearing a black jacket and cap, put on a high-vis jacket similar to those worn by postmen.
Then after watching a Royal Mail driver leave his van secure while he was making deliveries, they approached the van, and Gairns put a key into the driver’s door while, giving every impression that he was a Royal Mail worker, while Marshall opened the rear of the van.
He took a large number of Special Delivery parcels which he put into a large builder’s bag, and they then calmly walked away, with Marshall taking off the high-vis jacket as they did so.
But the police had been keeping watch and arrested both men, recovering the bag which contained parcels worth £40,000 due to have been delivered to a jewellery shop, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and a clothing store.
The two men, partly through the cameras, were then linked to the earlier raids in Stratford and York. Mr Windridge said both had previous convictions for offences of dishonesty.
Richard Vardon, for Gairns, said: “He recognises what he’s done is wrong, and he doesn’t want lame, pathetic excuses put before you.”
Nick Devine, for Marshall, said he had not offended after finding regular work as a labourer, but work had begun to dry up ‘because of the influx of younger and cheaper labour.’ He added that the defendant's job was to carry out the thefts and then hand the property to a fence, who would reward them for their efforts.
Recorder Lance Ashworth told them: “These were, in my judgement, well-planned events."
He ruled they had a benefit from their offending of £128,000 but, hearing that they had no assets, he ordered each of them to pay a nominal £1 confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act within 28 days – or face a further two weeks in jail.