Haulier held on theft
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• Cheshire haulier Gary Murphy is being held in custody pending sentence after being convicted of stealing a ,E2,000 semi-trailer.
Murphy, of Woolston Drive, Hough, near Crewe, pleaded not guilty at Lincoln Crown Court to the theft of a bulk trailer from a Colsterworth, Grantham farm in October 1991. Prosecuting, Timothy Cockrill said Murphy asked one of his drivers, Michael Dalton, to drive to Colsterworth and collect the trailer. Though the trailer was altered, it bore markings showing it belonged to CEP Farms when police recovered it from Murphy's yard on the Cockshades Farm Industrial Estate, Crewe.
When interviewed by police, Murphy admitted his vehicles had carried loads of potatoes for CEP Farms, but he had denied having anything to do with the theft.
Dalton said he believed he was acting under orders when he fetched the trailer from CEP Farms' premises. He arrived back at Cockshades in the early hours of the morning and parked the trailer. Ile denied he had stolen the trailer himself and then offered to sell it to Murphy After Murphy was convicted by the jury the court was told that he was already the subject of a suspended prison sentence imposed at Stoke on Trent Crown Court in March 1991 for the theft of a trailer.
Murphy was remanded in custody for pre-sentence reports.