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Judge tells thieving truck driver his crime was ‘as stupid as it gets’
A DRIVER who stole a generator he was transporting for his employer has been told his crime was “about as stupid as it gets”.
Simon Ascroft was working for HSS Hire, in Alvaston, when he was asked to pick up a generator from its Leek depot, Derby Crown Court heard.
His employer contacted the police after the equipment, worth £3,390, was not delivered. Police inquiries led them to a generator at a caravan park in Church Broughton.
The tracker on Ascroft’s vehicle revealed that he had visited the area on the day he had been sent to pick up the generator.
Telling Ascroft he must do 180 hours of unpaid work and pay HSS Hire £1,750, judge John Burgess said: “I hope you are feeling incredibly stupid because this is about as stupid as it gets.”
The court heard that Ascroft’s job had been well-paid but he had now lost it because of what he had done.
“It was a blind act of stupidity,” said the judge, and added: “I am not going to clog up prisons with someone as stupid as you.”
Prosecutor Sarah Lloyd said Ascroft told his employer he had stopped for a quick “power snooze” after eating from a roadside burger van and that the generator must have been stolen while he was asleep.
But his story was shattered when they found evidence from the tracker and also that he had been in contact with someone from the caravan park on that day — December 13 last year.
A generator that had been painted black, but blue underneath — the colour of the stolen one — was found at the caravan site.
But the equipment no longer worked because the spray paint had clogged up the engine, the court heard.
Ascroft, of Victoria Drive, Blackwell, admitted theft.
Quentin Robbins, speaking for Ascroft, said his client now had a job as an apprentice and earned £96 a week.
The judge told Ascroft that if he did not comply with his 12-month community order he would be back in court and would probably be sent to prison.
