Thief spared jail after stealing a lorry trailer loaded up with children’s cosmetics worth £86,000 in Lutterworth

A thief who stole a lorry trailer loaded up with children’s cosmetics worth £86,000 from a Lutterworth industrial park has escaped jail.

Stephen Richards, 35, was handed a 20-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, at Leicester Crown Court.

Richards, of Britannia Road, Wolverhampton, admitted theft, driving otherwise in accordance with a driving licence and driving without insurance.

He was also ordered to do 126 hours unpaid work, given a two-month curfew order and told to pay £340 costs and a victim surcharge of £156.

Richards was arrested just 30 minutes after he struck at the compound of Trout Transport in Bilton Way, Lutterworth, in the early hours of Monday May 24.

He was caught by police after an eagle-eyed eye-witness spotted the criminal breaking in and hooking up the trailer to a lorry cab before speeding off.

Richards was quickly intercepted by police patrols and stopped on the A5 near the Leicestershire-Warwickshire border after the alarm was raised.