AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

'Tip of an iceberg'

13th April 1985, Page 17
13th April 1985
Page 17
Page 17, 13th April 1985 — 'Tip of an iceberg'
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

TWO HAULAGE contractors — described by a Crown Court judge as the tip of a lorry hijacking iceberg — have been given suspended prison sentences.

And after hearing how the two men had helped hide £39,000 worth of stolen car parts, Judge Myrella Cohen told them she considered their business "highly dubious."

Richard Crossman, of Tantaloon, Birtley, near Gateshead, was sentenced to 12-months in jail suspended for two years after admitting two charges of assisting in the retention of stolen property.

His business partner, Frederick McGregor, of Lime Street, Chester-le-Street, was given a suspended nine-month sentence after pleading guilty to two similar charges. The court heard both men had been running a firm called Gallowgate Transport at the time of the offences.

Police discovered the haul of car parts in a trailer parked inside a lorry park owned by the two men at Birtley. The parts had been stolen from a transport depot near Staines, Middlesex. The original lorry was found abandoned on the Al in North Yorkshire. Both men claimed they had been asked to look after the trailer and towed it into their yard after it had become a magnet for vandals and children.

At the time, claimed their counsel Glen Gatland, the company was in a bad way and the men had strayed over the very thin line of honesty and dishonesty to keep it going.

Judge Cohen •did not agree.