£5m beer keg gang told to pay back £40,000 each

Three men who took part in a £5million beer barrel racket which saw thousands of kegs stolen from the brewing industry and sold off for a fraction of their price for scrap have now been told to each pay back £40,000 for their ill gotten gains.

David Fellows, aged 61, of Belbroughton Road, Kidderminster, Ian Lewis, 48, of Bromsgrove Road, Clent and Anthony Geeling, 64, from Studley in Warwickshire were each ordered to pay the amount at a Proceeds of Crime hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

They must also each pay £10,000 toward the £216,000 costs of the trial, which resulted in each being convicted of conspiracy to steal and receiving four-year custodial sentences.

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

Beer keg crime barons behind bars

In total, the stainless steel and aluminium barrels made about £1.4million when sold as scrap. But the thefts cost the brewery firms more than £5million to replace the barrels.

A metal mountain of beer kegs, which had been crushed and baled ready to be sold on, was discovered in Cannock

The operation was stopped when police were called to a baling firm in Oldbury, where the sound of metal grinding could be heard.

Geeling, Fellows and Lewis were all jailed for four years in February 2012 after being convicted of conspiracy to steal after a three-month trial, but are currently out on licence.

At the proceeds of crime act hearing on Friday, Geeling, Lewis and Fellows showed no emotion as the amounts they had to pay were read out by Judge Martin Walsh.

How the Express & Star reported the case in 2012

Mr Nick Smith, prosecuting, said: "The crown sets out and accepts the benefit figures for each of defendants to be £40,000.

"Clearly money has already been paid by companies to the losers.

"Each defendant has available assets in excess of £40,000, a figure near to this was canvassed the last time, but further negotiation has settled the final benefit.

"Most of it comes from equity in their homes."

He said the total cost of the trial was £216,000, including £86,000 costs for counsel.

He said an offer by the defendants to each pay a further £10,000 in costs toward the trial had been accepted.

Judge Walsh said each defendant had six months to pay the amounts, of face an 18-month prison sentence.