Men stole almost £100,000 worth of lamb in Wrexham

Martin Hall, aged 43 and of Portal Drive in Upper Heyford, Bicester, Oxfordshire, and Sean Mannion, aged 33 and of Sharps Drive in Whitchurch, both admitted an offence of conspiracy to steal.

Both defendants appeared back in the dock at Mold Crown Court on Monday to be sentenced.

Michael Stables, prosecuting, told the court that in March 2023, a company called Farmers Fresh Ltd on Wrexham Industrial Estate had two trailers loaded with lamb awaiting collection.

Prior to the legitimate collection, a HGV driven by Hall arrived and removed one of the two containers containing meat worth £96,666.75, Mr Stables explained.

The defendant had to enter a security code in order to leave the site - and he had the correct code.

In order to "complete the ruse," as the container was driven southbound, Mannion attended Farmers Fresh Ltd to collect one of the trailers seemingly legitimately.

He was said to "feign surprise" when staff began to realise what had happened and "became nervous" when the police were mentioned.

Management at Farmers Fresh Ltd started to receive reports of meat being offered for sale in London at a discount price - and before long they were given the location of an abandoned trailer.

The company did recover the trailer, from a layby on the A40 near Forest Hill, but incurred significant losses.

Police established that Mannion and Hall were in contact before, during and after the theft.

On Mannion's phone, officers found a screenshot of his own social media account with a post stating: "Thank you to Farmers Fresh for not paying me the money owed."

The police were also able to evidence calls made by the defendants to "various wholesalers" to - he surmised "sort out to sell the meat."

While some £12,242 worth of the stolen lamb could be recovered, the remainder was either stolen, sold on or otherwise unfit for human consumption.

Jon Mitchell, representing Mannion, said: "He is 33 years old and has a partner. They have four children between them.

Sean Mannion, left, and Martin Hall, outside Mold Crown Court at the time of their plea hearing (Image: Staff) (Image: Staff)

"He ran a haulage company at the time of the offences and racked up at this period a series of unpaid contract bills, where monies were owed to him by contractors.

"At the same time, he was having to pay out of his company's pocket the considerable cost of running heavy goods lorries and the payment of the other drivers.

"The reason of him going down the route he chose is that he was facing financial hardship.

"As a consequence of his choices, he has now lost the business."

He added, conceded that there was some degree of planning and, in his client's case, a degree of breach of trust too.

Simon Parry, defending Hall, said: "The position Mr Hall finds himself in is that he's before the court for this offence; the offending now goes back to 2023, meaning it's approaching four years old.

"It took two and a half years to even reach the stage of charge, so this defendant is now being sentenced for something that occurred some time ago.

"Your Honour has already been referred to the messages in the background of this offending; it's my submission that Mr Hall has been drawn into something that was someone else's problem.

"If he were to receive an immediate custodial sentence, it would have an impact on his children.

"In Mr Hall's case, there is no breach of trust or responsibility at all; he has no connection at all to Farm Fresh."

His Honour Judge Simon Mills told the men: "The high value of this meat reflects the planning that must have gone into this offence; you'll have had a good idea of the gratuitous profit you were going to make from this flagrant and pre-planned dishonesty.

Sean Mannion (NWP) (Image: Staff)

"You both knew how this offence could be executed, you had the correct security code to use.

"And you both had the wherewithal - the gall - to go separately to the premises... one to do the actual stealing and then Mannion coming to the premises in order to 'complete the ruse', feigning puzzlement as the staff were unravelling the fact that someone had just stolen a container-load of meat.

"Given the high value of this and the blatant nature of what you both did, you must have known the consequences would be serious if you got caught."

The Judge felt that the offence was so serious, adequate punishment could only be achieved by immediate imprisonment.

As such, he jailed both men for two years and four months.