Thief jailed after stealing van and tools from landscape gardener working in Kenilworth

A landscape gardener had his van containing most of his tools stolen while he was working at a house in Kenilworth.

But although the van has never been found, most of the tools and personal items were recovered when the police stopped a stolen Mini less than two hours later.

Dylan Cawley, who was at the wheel of the Mini, pleaded guilty to handling the car, the tools and personal items.

And Cawley (23) of Wordsworth Drive, Derby, was jailed for a total of 16 months by a judge at Warwick Crown Court.

Prosecutor Paul Whitfield said that on March 23 a landscape gardener was working for most of the day at a house in Kenilworth.

He left most of the tools, worth around £1900, together with his laptop and other personal property, in his van which was parked in the street.

But during the afternoon someone got into the van and drove it away.

A recording from a nearby CCTV camera showed a Mini, which had been stolen in February, in the street near the house where the gardener was working.

A short while later a man who had been the front seat passenger in the Mini walked up to the van, got into it and drove it away.

Police enquiries led to the Mini being spotted heading north on the M6, and as officers began to follow it, the driver pulled off the motorway at junction 7 near Birmingham.

The Mini went over a stinger, and was then boxed in by police cars before Cawley, who was driving, and his passenger were both arrested.

Around £1,700 worth of the stolen tools were recovered from the Mini, together with the gardener’s phone and laptop.

Judge Peter Cooke observed: “The theft of the van preceded the arrest of the defendant by only an hour-and-a-half. Handlings don’t come much closer to a theft than this. If ever there was a case a recent possession, this is it.”

Both men made no comment when they were interviewed, and Mr Whitfield pointed out that the passenger has denied the offences and is awaiting trial.

He added that Cawley had 40 previous convictions for ‘a comprehensive record of dishonesty,’ including thefts, conspiracy to steal and burglary.

David Morton, defending, said: “I concede his record is deeply unattractive, but he has already been punished for those earlier offences.”

Suggesting Cawley could be given a suspended sentence, Mr Morton said he was a married man whose young daughter was born two weeks before the offence, and he had ‘expressed a willingness to co-operate with the probation service.’

Jailing Cawley for 12 months for handling the tools, with a consecutive four-month term for the Mini, Judge Cooke told him: “For a 23-year-old to have amassed a record as shocking as yours is depressing indeed.

“I am asked to deal with you by a suspended sentence. In view of your record, any judge who did so would be taking leave of his senses.

“It must be the case that the victim has suffered a significant loss, when he has lost the tools of his trade, and the fact that you did it while on licence and that you have an utterly shocking record must place it at the very top category.

“You were also making use of a stolen Mini on cloned plates, conveying away the proceeds of the theft which, no matter how you had acquired them, you were handling.”