Double decker double dealing
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• A United Counties bus driver was given a six-month suspended jail sentence last week for using his doubledecker bus on an unauthorised service for personal profit.
Keith Grove of Brampton Way, Brixworth was convicted at Northampton Crown Court of taking a United Counties double-decker bus without permission and stealing a ticket machine and £34.24 in fares.
The court was told that Grove ran his bus around Wellingborough's Queensway Estate ahead of the regular service, pocketing the £34.24 he collected in fares during the illegal trip.
Grove maintained that he had been given permission to go shopping in Western Favell after picking up passengers between Northampton and Wellingborough and that his bus had been switched for another in Wellingborough, without him noticing while he was making a telephone call to his wife.
Three other United Counties drivers gave evidence that they had seen Grove driving his bus and picking up passengers in the Hardwick Road area ahead of the scheduled service. Judge Richard May sentenced Grove to six months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered him to pay 2800 costs plus £154.20 compensation.
He told Grove that he had been convicted of deliberate theft from his employers, and that a prison sentence was appropriate because Grove had tried to pass suspicion onto others.