Deep Adhiya Guilty of Stealing Smart Phones Worth £51,000
A self-employed courier from Leicester has been given a non-custodial sentence for stealing 120 Apple iPhone 5s with an estimated worth exceeding £51,000.
Deep Adhiya, 20, pleaded guilty to the theft of the smart phones which he was subcontracted to transport from Hinckley to London by the parcel delivery service TNT.
The gold-coloured iPhones, part of a larger consignment of Apple handsets, were taken whilst on route to their destination, Leicester Crown Court heard.
Deep accepted the charges but maintained that a second person, who had been travelling with him in the delivery van on the day, had taken the boxes containing the phones. He also insisted that the phones had been taken as a result of a cannabis debt amounting to £800 which Deep owed him.
The defendant, who had no previous convictions, received a sentence of 12 months community service and was ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
Judge Nicholas Dean QC said: “I accept you were persuaded to behave as you did by someone who must have been more criminally sophisticated than you.
“You were persuaded into stealing high value goods.
“It was unusual for your small business to be involved in moving such high value goods and your associate couldn’t resist the temptation.
“A good deal of the loss has been made up for by your insurers.
“The pre-sentence report and references speak of a young man who has a good side to him.
“If you were being dealt with, as I think you should have been, the best part of a year ago, it may be a suspended sentence would have been appropriate.
“But the passage of time has proved your character is not one given to criminality and a community order will suffice.
“I wouldn’t be taking this course if I thought you were at risk of further offending.”
Lynsey Knott, prosecuting, said the defendant had made “no comment” in an interview regarding the crime and had also refuse to provide details to the police about the identity of the person he said had taken the phones.
Miss Knott said: “The phones haven’t been recovered but 33 of them were later activated in various countries, from France to Vietnam.”
