£1 payback for gang in £47,000 raids

Members of an organised criminal gang who stole more than £40,000 of goods from Black Country bathroom firm Aqualux have been ordered to pay back £1 each.

Former firm supervisor Robert Witton, aged 38, Inderjit Sarai, 43, and Darshan Shand, 42, were told to pay the nominal sum because they have no recoverable assets, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Judge Michael Dudley made an order under the Proceeds of Crime Act yesterday for them to each pay £1. Witton was jailed for three years in April for his "pivotal" role in using his position to allow vans in and out of the firm's warehouse so they could drive off with stolen equipment.

His trial heard how directors at Aqualux became concerned that stock was going missing from the warehouse, on Steelmans Road, Wednesbury, near Ikea.

Investigations identified a white Mercedes Sprinter van registered to a Darshan Chand, who was posing as a delivery driver to take the goods away.

The van had been to the depot 35 times over a period of several months, usually when Witton, of Union Street, Chuckery, Walsall, whose job was to authorise stock to be released, was working.

On the evening of January 13 2009, the van arrived at Aqualux and within eight minutes tried to leave. When it was stopped, it was found to have with bath screens and other items with a retail value of £5,000.

The amount of stock which went missing was put at £47,000. Stolen bathroom fixtures were "on sale all over the region at very low prices", the court heard.

Sarai, of Belgrave Walk, Reedswood, Walsall, who worked as a forklift truck driver at Aqualux, established contact with Chand.

Sarai was jailed for 15 months after admitting conspiracy to steal.

Married father-of-three Chand, of Leveson Street, Willenhall, who posed as a delivery driver to remove goods, was given nine months after admitting the same offence.

Mr John Evans, prosecuting, said the conspiracy had run from October 2007 to January 2009.