Cooking oil thieves stole from Merry Hill KFC vat
Two men have been jailed for stealing used cooking oil from stores and takeaways that was later converted into bio-diesel fuel in an elaborate nationwide operation.
Stuart Bradley and Matthew Walker were sentenced for two years for conspiracy to defraud and to steal, having masterminded the plan to steal oil before selling it for conversion to bio-diesel.
Bradley, aged 38, and Walker, 27, were arrested in February by police officers after an alarm on an oil vat at KFC in Merry Hill was activated.
Suspicious police then searched their white Transit van, discovering a vat of foul-smelling used cooking oil and a siphoning kit.
Detectives quickly discovered a spate of identical but unsolved offences dating from November 2011 to February 2012 in Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall, Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Worcester, Derby, Manchester, Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicester and Stockport.
Det Con Gareth Homer led the investigation and said: "With so many businesses that employ local people struggling to make ends meet in these tough times, sustained losses on this scale could have very well meant they went under."
The men had been operating as a waste removal firm having created a company with an almost identical name to that of a lawfully operating oil recycling company which had national contracts to remove the used oil from three store chains.
Bradley, of Mostyn Road, Stourport, and Walker, of Bewdley Road, Stourport, used uniform, paperwork and identification which so closely resembled that of official contractors that staff were unaware that they had been scammed.
West Midlands Police detectives identified 227 oil theft offences resulting in a loss of £71,380 for the company Bradley and Walker's scam operation so closely resembled.
Officers said an additional £76,000 worth of oil stolen from KFC.
The two men pleaded guilty in October and were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday.
