Lead theft man sent to prison
A MAN who stole almost £2,000 of lead from an Ely church roof and pleaded guilty to 10 other offences has been jailed for 10 months. Between March 27 and May 30, heroine addict Carl Scarrow stole metal from the Environment Agency, in Prickwillow Road, lea
A MAN who stole almost £2,000 of lead from an Ely church roof and pleaded guilty to 10 other offences has been jailed for 10 months.
Between March 27 and May 30, heroine addict Carl Scarrow stole metal from the Environment Agency, in Prickwillow Road, lead from the Countess Free Church and meat from Littleport Co-op.
On three occasions he drove while disqualified, he drove without insurance three times, failed to produce his licence when asked by a police officer, and breached a four-month suspended jail sentence.
Scarrow, 26, of Broad Piece, Soham, and 34-year-old Joe Allgood, of Earith Bridge Caravan Park, stole lead from the church on Chapel Street on March 27.
Witness Roy Maine saw the men acting suspiciously and after hearing whistling, he saw a blue truck arrive near the flat roof of the building, and wrote down the vehicle registration number.
The same day, Environment Agency operations manager Darren Trumper discovered a compound had been broken into, metal piles were missing and the same blue van was seen leaving the site. He followed the vehicle and alerted police.
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CCTV footage had shown the van arriving at the Environment Agency at 2.45pm and leaving 10 minutes later.
Police arrived at the EMR recycling centre, in Snailwell, at 3.30pm to discover the stolen items had been unloaded and paperwork issued for their sale.
Scarrow was the driver and Allgood was a passenger.
Mitigating, Jeremy Kendall explained that Scarrow, who has a long list of previous convictions, had been battling a heroin addiction for several years and, after leaving prison in 2005, he managed to stay off drugs for 18 months, be in a steady relationship and have a child. Mr Kendall said Scarrow realised he had let down his partner and child and longed to get back to family life.
Scarrow had asked magistrates to take into account 10 offences of stealing fuel from a garage.
He had been remanded in custody since June 8 and arrived at Ely courthouse for sentencing on Tuesday.
He received a two-month sentence for stealing from the church and the Environment Agency, two months for stealing from the Co-op and two months for the driving offences. His four-month suspended sentence was activated.
The sentences were to run consecutively and he was disqualified from driving for two years.
Scarrow has already served 69 days of his sentence.
Allgood is due to be sentenced on August 21.
