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Man was caught with £21,000 worth of stolen goods in Taunton raid A SERIAL offender who was caught with expensive goods stolen in a £21,000 raid on a photographic studio has given a suspended sentence. Phillip Matthews did not carry out the raid on a professional photographer’s studio in Barnstaple, but police seized some of the items when they raided his home in Taunton a week later. Rucksacks, a camera bag, video camera, and data cards stolen in raid were found by police but around £20,0000 of kit, including a drone were never recovered. Photographer and filmmaker Simon Cotter was left £3,000 out of pocket because his insurance did not cover the full cost of the equipment stolen in May 2020.
Off-the-scale cocaine dealer caught with £700,000 of drugs in secret compartment van
Jonathan Kenney travelled across the country in a specially adapted van to try and trick police
Updated
Drug dealer (Image: Devon Police)
A drug dealer was caught with a staggering amount of cocaine driving down from Liverpool to Devon, which a judge said was off the scale.
The trips, across the country during the pandemic lockdown, were part of a large-scale criminal enterprise flooding cocaine from Merseyside to the south coast.
When police stopped his van in August, they had to take it apart to find the drugs, and discovered it was controlled by an electronic system which had to be activated remotely by the driver to open it.
Court Reporter
Exeter Crown Court
- Credit: Archant
A confidence trickster founded his own political party in Bideford and stood for election on a platform of ‘honesty and transparency’ while swindling companies out of thousands of pounds.
Timothy Ahlbeck set up a string of companies and claimed to be a duke, lord or doctor while in reality he was an undischarged bankrupt and banned from running any business.
He fleeced creditors by filing false returns which showed he had assets of £200,000 when he was penniless and trying to run a market stall in Newton Abbot.
He registered The People’s Party UK ltd as the name of one of his companies and stood as an Independent in Torbay’s local elections in 2019.
Court Reporter
Lewis Brown
- Credit: DC Police
A fugitive who fled police by jumping over walls and fences was caught nine hours later after a car chase along farm tracks.
Lewis Brown shook off two officers when they tried to handcuff him outside his former partner s house in Bideford after a domestic incident.
He was found driving a Volkwagen car on the edge of Barnstaple and tried to give police the slip by driving down country lanes at up to 50 mph.
He came close to hitting two pedestrians after his front tyres were punctured by a stinger device and carried on across a farm track when they shredded and fell off.