Beer keg crime barons behind bars

An unscrupulous bunch of businessmen were behind bars today after police smashed a £5million stolen beer barrel racket.

The scam involved more than 90,000 empty metal kegs each worth about £65 being syphoned off for scrap for as little as £5 a time, instead of being returned to breweries to be refilled.

The stainless steel and aluminium barrels fetched about £1.4 million when sold as scrap before being crushed, recycled and shipped overseas, but cost at least £5m to replace.

Police found a 298-tonne metal mountain of crushed beer barrels in Cannock, and up to £200,000 worth of undamaged kegs that had been earmarked for scrap.

The businessmen turned to crime in order to cash in on soaring metal prices and laid a false paper trail in a bid to throw investigators off the scent.

They were caught out after an investigator looking for a missing load of 400 empty barrels shipped from beer wholesaler Top Brand in Birmingham heard the tell-tale sound of metal grinding in Oldbury.

He found that the noise came from Lewis Baling Services where the truck was parked and police were called.

They arrested the lorry drivers and Ian Lewis, the boss of the business, along with a visitor who turned out to be Anthony Geeling a 61-year-old director of M&S Alloys in West Bromwich who lived in Studley, Warwickshire

He and colleague David Fellows, 57, of Blakedown, near Kidderminster, had stolen about 78,000 empty beer kegs with a scrap value of £1.2m that were crushed in less than two years.

The two men and 45-year-old Lewis from Clent were convicted of conspiracy to steal and were each jailed for four years after a three-month trial that could not be reported until now for legal reasons.

Prosecutor Richard Atkins QC told Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday: "They were all involved in stealing the kegs for their scrap value."

Tom Kibble, 32, and Neil Mackay, 37, both from Sutton Coldfield, ran the Top Brand beer wholesale firm and were involved with Lewis in the scam.

They admitted selling him at least 12,000 empty kegs for at least £5 a time, when the scrap value was up to £18.

The duo pocketed more than £60,000 in five months from the racket until it was uncovered by police.

The pair transported 30 lorry loads of empty kegs – each carrying about 400 barrels – to be crushed in the five months up to them being detained by police, the court heard. At the time, aluminium was fetching about £1,200 a ton as demand for metal went sky high.

Kibble and Mackay admitted conspiracy to steal and were each sent to prison for 15 months yesterday. They were both of previous good character but had been "tempted and corrupted", the court heard.

Lorry drivers Keith James, 62, of Marston Green and Marc Curley, 43, of Hall Green who earned up to £400 a load were each given 44-week suspended jail terms after admitting handling stolen property.