Man charged with £200,000 clock theft from stately home

A MAN from West Yorkshire has been charged with stealing an antique clock worth £200,000 from a stately home.

Graham Harkin, 57, of Chestnut Walk, Wakefield, was charged with theft after officers recovered the clock from the back of a car.

It was taken from Levens Hall in Kendal, Cumbria, last September, when raiders stole a set of ladders to scale the walls of the historic house.

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The ebony timepiece was damaged during the raid and one of its four feet had come off, police said at the time.

Harkin was charged after his car was stopped at Birch Services on the M62 in Manchester on Tuesday.

The Thomas Tompion clock was on loan to Levens Hall, which is open to the public and owned by the Bagot family.

It had been on display at the Elizabethan house for two years.

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Harkin was also charged with stealing a 50,000 sundial from Dalemain House near Pooley Bridge, which is still missing, and with driving while disqualified and without insurance.

He appeared at South Lakeland Magistrates' Court yesterday, where he was remanded in custody to reappear in the same court on April 22.