Copper taken by non-existent firm
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• A contract for transporting copper bars worth £8540 from Runcorn docks was sub-contracted from firm to firm until it reached a non-existent company, Chester Crown Court was told last week.
A driver received delivery notes and drove an articulated lorry to the docks where the copper was loaded. But instead of going to the BICC works at Prescot, the copper was taken to Liverpool, said Mr Elgan Edwards, prosecuting.
Before the court was the lorry driver, Mr Hugh Bennett, of Liverpool, who pleaded guilty to stealing 160 bars on May 31. He was given an 18 months' prison sentence, suspended for two years.
Mr Edwards said that when the copper bars arrived at Runcorn docks they were to have been taken to Prescot by a St. Helens haulage firm, but because it was short of lorries another firm was asked to provide transport.
An associate of Bennett's became involved and after calling on the sub-contractor and asking about further sub-contracting, he managed to get delivery notes to take to the docks.
Mr Edwards said that after an articulated tractive unit was taken without permission, Bennett hired a trailer under the fictitious name of JKF Transport. He then went to the docks, collected the copper and signed requisition notes in a false name.