Scrap dealer who cost railways £20,000 jailed

One man was jailed and another received a suspended sentence after the gang struck near the Gainsborough Road bridge at Bawtry, near Doncaster. The 1.4 tonnes of aluminimum fencing was worth about £1,500 as scrap, Sheffield Crown Court was told.

Scrap dealer David Bailey, 24, of Wroot Road, Finningley, near Doncaster, admitted theft and Lee Burton, 41, of Cross Road, Balby, nearly Doncaster, was convicted of handling stolen goods.

Judge Roger Keen told the pair: “The loss to the railway was considerably more than the cost of the aluminium. It created danger for those maintaining the railways and to repair it meant that there were diversions of railway traffic and a very large amount of money was involved.”

He branded Bailey’s account that he came across the metal in a lay-by when he stopped to go to the toilet a “patent lie”.

Bailey was jailed for 16 months and the judge ordered that his scrap vehicle be confiscated with proceeds from the sale to go to the complainants.

Burton, who drove the metal to a scrapyard knowing it was stolen, was given a six-month jail term suspended for two years and ordered to pay £1,000 costs.