Father coaxes son into stealing back car he sold two years earlier
A son was persuaded by his father to help steal the same car he had sold to a customer two years earlier, a court heard.
Shameer Chauhan, aged 22, joined three other culprits to steal the Mercedes after his father, Walsall car salesman, Naresh, happened to find a spare set of keys.
Stafford Crown Court heard how Mr Chauhan senior had sold the car in September 2012. The extra keys were discovered in early February 2014.
The Mercedes was taken from the new owner's drive on March 24 last year. It was eventually stripped for parts and sold on.
Shameer Chauhan, of Blenheim Drive, Wednesbury, was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, after admitting conspiracy to steal a motor vehicle.
His father, 53, of Halford Crescent, Walsall, had been given nine months in jail for conspiracy to steal at an earlier hearing, while the three other offenders were given rehabilitation and community orders.
Mr Bernard Linnemann, prosecuting, said the Mercedes owner, who lived in Burton upon Trent, had noticed people sitting in a grey Golf looking at the house and car a few nights before it was taken.
He said: "On March 24 he realised someone was getting into his car and it was eventually followed by a silver Golf, which drove off with its lights off.
"An inspector who happened tobe on duty tried to follow the Mercedes but it was blocked off by the Golf. The Mercedes disappeared and was never seen again."
Mrs Jane Sergeant, defending, said Mr Chauhan senior had been caring for his terminally-ill mother, who had later died, but that care had been passed on to his son's shoulders when he had been sent to prison.
She said he had been badly affected by his father's sentence and losing his grandmother.
She said: "He is clearly not well and needs to see a community psychiatric nurse.
"He is depressed and has not attended Job Seekers Allowance meetings, so his benefits have been stopped. It's almost like he has stopped. He requires help and needs structure in his life."
Judge Jonathan Gosling, sentencing Shameer Chauhan, said it was clear the father had been behind the theft.
