Robots helped with Mars theft
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by Miles Brignall • A Tibbett & Britten ware. house supervisor stole £500,000 worth of Mars bars by programming robots to put palletised loads into the wrong lorries which were then delivered to a secret store, a court has heard.
Martin Keys, who worked at T&B's Bicester warehouse, is alleged to have directed eight trucks contain ing £68,000 loads of chocolate to leave the warehouse under the noses of security guards and video surveillance equipment.
Last week Keys, of Vale Cottages, Stow-on-the-Weld, appeared at Gloucester Crown Court to deny conspiracy to steal the bars.
The court heard that the storage facility is fully computerised. Orders are gathered by robots "flitting up and down" collecting and delivering pallets of confectionery for dispatch.
Simon Brand, prosecuting, told the jury Keys was the "inside man" in a plot hatched Mors bars: E5 with an Abdi Singh Ninaswho has never been arrested.
According to Brand, Keys re programmed the computers ti include bogus orders--coverim his tracks by using other peo ple's passwords. Ninas, whi had previously worked at ail warehouse for a time, was saic to have arran ged for hire( trucks with dri vers to turn u] to receive th, orders at pre arranged times The bars wer, taken to a ware house in Bir mingham and sold on.
Brand contended the pai would have got away with it fo a ninth time, but the warehous had apparently run low oi stock and the order could not b fulfilled by the robots.
On trial with Keys is his girl friend, Emma Smiley, wh, denies laundering money raise( by Key's activities. She i: alleged to have receive( £54,000 into her bank accoun and allowed Keys to buy £165,000 cottage in her name.
The trial continues.