Harworth machine thief pleaded guilty after CCTV was found

A Sheffield man who stole an industrial machine off a Harworth drive changed his plea to guilty after CCTV footage of the theft was disclosed, a court heard.

Aaron Bruce and another man picked up the £566 plate compactor from President Place, and put it into a van, on June 18, last year.

Prosecutor Robert Carr asked for compensation of £650 to include the cost of hiring the machine from Jewsons in Retford.

Bruce was last before the courts in 2013, when he was jailed for a non-dwelling burglary.

Morgan Hogarth, mitigating, said Bruce had been out of trouble for five years, and committed the earlier burglary because he had been out of work.

“There was no advance planning,” he said, adding the Bruce now had the offer of a scaffolding job which would involve weekend work.

Probation officer Sarah Alderton said: “He tells me he was just “chancing it” when he entered a not-guilty plea.

“He says the item was for his friend and he stood to make no financial gain.”

Bruce, 29, of Colley Road, admitted theft, after initially denying it, when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Friday.

He was fined £225, and ordered to pay compensation to Jewsons, as well as £85 costs and a £30 government surcharge.