The fourth member of a criminal gang has been sentenced and banned from Cumbria after a dramatic late night police chase.
Damien Maundrill, 32, had denied being involved in an illegal expedition involving men who travelled from their West Yorkshire homes to the Penrith area.
Police were on heightened patrol in the early hours of December 9, 2020, aware that curtain-sides HGVs were being targeted in the dead of night by thieves as truckers slept.
North of Penrith on the A6, officers saw a white Vauxhall Insignia containing four men in a lay-by with its lights on close to one such lorry.
They were suspicious but as they tried to pull up behind the vehicle it drove off at speed. A mobile phone and angle grinder were tossed from the vehicle.
Other police were drafted in to assist and the car was stopped in Penrith town centre. Numerous pairs of gloves were inside while efforts had also been made to prevent the registration number being read.
Three West Yorkshire men detained by police admitted going equipped for theft and were sentenced by a judge in November.
They were handed suspended jail terms and banned from Cumbria for 18 months.
Maundrill, of Lowood Lane, Birstall, near Batley, denied the charge but was convicted after a magistrates’ court trial of being a rear seat passenger in the car. He had a partner with children and hadn’t committed any dishonesty crimes since December 2020.
Judge Louise Brandon, who noted he had continued to deny the offence but was capable of being rehabilitated, suspended a 12-month prison sentence for 18 months. Maundrill was also banned from entering Cumbria during that period and must complete probation service rehabilitation work.
“Significant steps were taken to avoid detection,” Judge Brandon said of the crime. “There was clearly significant planning given what was recovered, the number of you involved and the distance which had been travelled.”
