Devon mobile home theft left victim homeless

A fairground worker and a haulage yard employee stole a 10-tonne mobile home, leaving their victim homeless.

The £30,000, 40ft (12m) long home was taken from a haulage yard in Devon in 2017 while it was undergoing work.

Stewart Gregory, 43, from Surrey, stole it with the help of a worker at the yard, Darren Baseley, Exeter Crown Court heard.

Gregory denied theft but was found guilty by a jury. Baseley, 47, from Devon, previously admitted theft.

The court heard Gregory, of Aldershot Road, Normandy, Surrey, who had been a travelling showman, stole the home in early November 2017 after he was sub-contracted by TS Haulage, based at Willand, near Cullompton.

It was being moved from Warwickshire for owner Sonia McColl to her daughter's home in near Barnstaple, to act as a granny annexe, and was at the yard to be fitted out.

Ms McColl, 72, who was made an OBE for her campaigning work for mobile home owners, was left out of pocket because the home was not insured, the court heard. She later found somewhere else to live.

Baseley, of Henrys Run, Cranbrook, near Exeter, was recorded last year discussing the theft, the court was told.

In the call, he said he had thought it was just a "caravan and an old biddy", adding: "I didn't know she had an OBE and some weight behind her."

Gregory's Iveco trailer unit was caught on CCTV removing the static caravan from Willand, and mobile phone data showed he had driven from his home in Surrey for the theft, the jury was told.

Traffic cameras tracked the trailer moving across country to Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire but the home was never recovered.

Gregory claimed he lent his phone and truck to a mystery Eastern European man named Ash.

Recorder Mr Benjamin Newton adjourned sentencing on both men until July and ordered pre-sentence reports.

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