Carmarthen

A jury has seen threads of hundreds of WhatsApp messages between members of a gang charged with plotting burglaries that allegedly bagged them items worth around £4m.

Yesterday’s (Thursday, August 31) evidence at Northampton Crown Court focused on the theft of 319,000 facemasks at the Eurohub in the middle of lockdown, as well as the plundering of 540 solar panels from a site in rural Rugby, food mixers worth £700,000 taken from Leicester and a large Amazon load of big-brand goods worth 53,000 lifted from Wincanton in Corby.

Images of Howork stand mixers, a Roomba and a PS4 were found on the phones of some of the alleged gang members. Top left: 319,000 face masks were stolen from iForce at Corby Eurohub. Bottom left: A similar GrabHire4U truck to the one seen in court by the jury.

Standing trial are; Adel Chouhaib, 44, of Bede Close, Corby; Barry Mitchell, 43, of Carmarthen Way, Rushden; Robert Mitchell, 38, of London Road, Raunds; Suray Hamdi, 47, of Chain Close, Peterborough; and William Castle, 33, of Horselease Close, Great Oakley. They are all charged with conspiring to burgle and conspiring to steal. Chouhaib is also accused of handling stolen goods. All men deny the charges.

The court was shown hundreds of messages allegedly sent from Chouhaib to his co-defendants Hamdi and Barry Mitchell.

‘There was a leak. LOL’

Prosecutor Dee Toor told the court how Chouhaib, who appeared in court yesterday wearing a grey sweatshirt, had been involved in the theft of hundreds of boxes of facemasks belonging to Full Support Healthcare from iForce at the Eurohub in Corby.

The theft is said to have taken place overnight between November 18 and 19, 2020.

But while the boxes were being stored by the gang before they could shift them, there was a leak which soaked through many of them. A video message from Chouhaib’s phone was sent to Mitchell showing the extent of the damage, with a man with a Corby accent saying: “These are the good ones. What’s left is f***ing f***ed.”

A potential buyer told the men the deal was off when he caught sight of the water-damaged boxes. So they came up with a plan to re-box them in fresh containers.

Chouhaib then sent another video message from the inside of a warehouse in Ditchford, said to be the premises of JA Mitchell Haulage, a firm owned by the Mitchell brothers’ father, John.

In the video, a man with a Corby accent films hundreds of boxes piled up and can be heard saying: “Been working hard. That’s a warehouse full of boxes. That there’s the boxes to be re-boxed.”

The prosecution alleges Barry Mitchell – who was supposedly responsible for storing the facemasks – sent a WhatsApp message to Chouhaib that read: “987 boxes so far. Owed total £29,160 between four of us. £22,207 share for you, me and Scott.”

Co-defendant Suray Hamdi also sent a message to Chouhaib around the same time with a screenshot of a Tide bank account with a balance of £34,449. Investigating officers have been unable to tie this bank account to any of the defendants.

Hamdi then sent Chouhaib another message with his ‘expenses’ including a day rate for hired-in labour. Chouhaib replied to say they also owed ‘Barry’s dad’ £200 as well as £500 for ‘the guy who told us the information.’

None of the stolen facemasks were ever recovered.

‘Do you want some solar panels for your houses and your shops?’

Mr Toor also outlined another offence in which the Crown alleges that the men also stole 540 solar panels from a Hive Power solar farm under construction at Churchover, near Rugby.

In the build-up to the offence, said to have happened on December 4/5, 2020, the court heard that Chouhaib made dozens of internet searches for solar panels.

Multiple messages were shown to the court said to show him dealing with a man in Morocco.

The Moroccan told Chouhaib that the 410 watt panels stolen from Churchover were not in demand in his country.

The court heard that Chouhaib then asked Hamdi to pay someone to create fake labels for the back of the panels which changed the wattage from 410w to 150w. He managed to get a Turkish firm to organise new labels.

The court then saw messages Hamdi contacting other people to try to shift the panels.

One message said: “Do you want some solar panels for your houses and shops?”

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The jury was then shown a video message filmed on January 1, 2021, which showed Barry Mitchell wearing hi-vis and using his GrabHire4U-branded truck to move what the prosecution allege are bundles of solar panels outside a St Neots warehouse. It was in this warehouse that police found the unsold solar panels during their 2022 raid.

700 stand mixers

On December 18/19, 2020, the gang is alleged to have stolen a container of 1,040, Howork stand mixers worth a total of £700,000 from Trucklink EU at the Mill Lane Industrial Estate, Leicester, that had been destined for an Amazon logistics centre.

On the night in question, there were multiple calls made between Chouhaib and a man named Matthew Wilkes from the Birmingham area.

In messages, Wilkes says that he is ‘five minutes away’, before the truck was stolen.

The lorry had its tracker removed six minutes after it was stolen and the vehicle was eventually recovered, empty, in Birmingham. None of the mixers, worth £700 each, were recovered. The day after the burglary, Barry Mitchell sent an Amazon screenshot of an identical mixer to Hamdi.

‘Five minutes away’

The jury also heard details of a fourth offence said to have taken place just a couple of days later, on December 21, 2020. Following a string of calls between Chouhaib, Hamdi, the Mitchell brothers and Wilkes, a lorry cab on false plates towed away a large Amazon load owned by Wincanton in Curver Way, Corby.

The cab was filmed on the night in question at the back yard of DG Haulage, close to Wincanton.

The prosecution alleged that the cab was being driven by Chouhaib, and showed a 15-minute video to the jury of a man said to be Chouhaib trying to hook up a trailer to the cab.

The trailer was allegedly packed with a mixed Amazon load worth 53,000 Euros.

The lorry was driven away and was later found abandoned in Kimbolton.

A video message and photos sent later from Chouhaib’s phone showed items including an air fryer, Shark hoover, Turbo Tongs, a Morphy Richards bin, Sony PS4, an Instant Pot, Playmobil toys, a Roomba, a Ninja blender and other piles of electronics piled up inside a warehouse and in a bedroom.

The trial continues.

References

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