Chorley woman's business takings were stolen in car theft by Manchester criminal

A beauty party organiser lost her car and all of her kit when a thief struck, a court has heard.
Crown CourtCrown Court
Crown Court

Wesley Radford stole the woman’s car from Chorley shortly after she did a Body Shop party for a client in the town.

The woman spoke of her distress in a statement, revealing her takings, documents and products - worth around £2,000 - were in the car.

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Preston Crown Court was told the £10,000 Ford Fiesta was stolen in November 2016 - but it took two years for Radford, 41, of Brindle Health Road, Salford, to be investigated and sentenced over the offence in a case that is still “shrouded in mystery”.

Crown CourtCrown Court
Crown Court

The court heard he was a drug addict but had not committed any other offences since the car theft.

Prosecuting, Joe Boyd said: “A car connected to him was seen in convoy with the stolen car coming back from the scene to Manchester.

“CCTV also shows him on the road.

Sentencing him, Judge Andrew Woolman said: “ The circumstances of the theft are not entirely clear. Someone came across the keys to this Ford Fiesta that was stolen.

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“The owner seems to have left her keys outside unfortunately, and the car was stolen and driven in convoy with your car.

“There’s no evidence you played a leading role in this.

“The precise reasons are shrouded in mystery and not helped by any explanation you’ve put forward.”

Jailing him for 10 months he added: "It was obviously a planned operation of some kind by somebody. The vehicle was reasonably valuable.

"There's certainly a high level of inconvenience and emotional distress.

"Your lack of commitment and frankness doesn't give me any confidence you would comply with any other form of sentence."