Cardiff Crown Court (Image: Wales Updates)
Last Updated: 1 minute ago
A man who abused his position at a Pontypool engineering firm to steal 202 metal sheets has avoided an immediate prison sentence.
Deri Thomas, 47, was given 22 months in prison, suspended for two years, at Cardiff Crown Court. He must also complete 250 hours of unpaid work.
The sheets were worth almost £61,000. They were taken from Flamgard Engineering Ltd on four after-hours collections in late September and early October 2023, and none of them have been recovered.
Sentencing
Judge Daniel Williams said Thomas had clearly been “highly trusted” by the company. He called the thefts “planned, premeditated, although not sophisticated, offending”.
The judge said he had read the pre-sentence report. It covered the debts Thomas had fallen into after his relationship broke down, and his drug use.
Thomas received an 8% reduction for his guilty plea, which he entered part-way through his trial.
Keys to the warehouse
Anisha Rai, prosecuting, said Thomas had worked at the firm for 15 years by the time of the offending and was seen as a trusted member of the warehouse staff.
His job meant he held keys to the site. It was also his responsibility to make sure the premises were properly secured at the end of each day.
Caught on camera
The losses were discovered in October 2023, when a stocktake found sheets missing from the company’s inventory. That led to a review of the firm’s CCTV footage.
The footage showed that on four separate occasions:
- Thomas used a forklift truck to move metal sheets into a corner of the yard
- once every other employee had gone home, a flatbed van arrived
- the sheets were loaded onto the van and driven away
The identity of the van’s driver remains unknown.
Arrest and guilty plea
The thefts were reported to police and Thomas was arrested. He answered “no comment” to every question put to him in interview.
He later admitted theft by an employee during his trial. Thomas, of Bakery Close, Talywain, has one previous conviction, for failing to surrender in 2005, for which he was fined.
Mitigation
Kevin Seal, defending, said that after a relationship ended his client was in a “dark place emotionally and financially” and gave in to “temptation”.
Mr Seal said Thomas knows he has brought shame on his family, describing them as: “A family that has never been in trouble before – not even a speeding ticket”.
He told the court Thomas lives in a small community where “everybody knows” about his conviction, and added: “It was a mistake he made and a mistake he is going to have to live with for the rest of his life.”
