A SCRAP dealer who traded in stolen cars was jailed for 12 months yesterday after police raided his yard.
Frederick Walton, 44, started by recovering vehicles abandoned on an east Durham beach but he admitted to officers that some of the parts on his premises were too new to be from scrapped cars.
He had no experience of the motor trade when he rented a former car auction site in Peterlee, County Durham, but hoped to establish a business selling spares, said Roger Moor, defending at Teesside Crown Court, yesterday.
Walton, of Overhill Terrace, Bensham, Gateshead, pleaded guilty to 12 charges of handling stolen goods by receiving stolen cars at his premises in Faraday Road, Peterlee. His employee, William Stephenson, 43, of Cairo Street, Hendon, Sunderland, was given 18 months community rehabilitation after admitting three offences of assisting.
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