Court hears about theft raid at Arnold Clark dealership

A case in which two young men targeted an Arnold Clark dealership and hacked catalytic converters off from beneath several cars has been heard by magistrates in Greater Manchester.

The haul of catalytic converters they stole from vehicles at the Wigan dealership on December 17 was worth £5,000, magistrates were told.

Callum Elson, aged 20, of Woodstock Road in Wolverhampton and Callum Fieldhouse, aged 21, of Hollington Road in Wolverhampton, both pleaded guilty at Wigan and Leigh Magistrates Court to charges of theft from motor vehicles.

Both men were sentenced to serve 12-month community orders, to complete 80 hours of unpaid work and 10 days of rehabilitation activities.

Criminals take the catalytic converters and sell them to scrap yards, where they attract a high price due to the precious metals contained within them.

In 2022, West End Honda in Scotland teamed up with local police to combat a spate of catalytic converter thefts from Honda cars across Tayside.

The partnership scheme, reported by Dundee's Courier, meant that cars coming in to West End Honda in Dundee would be offered to have their converters marked with special tags for free while having other work carried out.

Police arranged with managing director James Ewart for aftersales staff at the Broughty Ferry dealership to have training with SelectaDNA, which provides forensic crime-prevention marking systems.

Stickers with unique ID numbers tag each catalytic converter with two heat-resistant labels that are impossible to remove in one piece, creating a permanent visible mark on the converter.

The ID number has a free lifetime registration on the secure asset register, which is accessible 24 hours a day and identifies stolen property to police and scrap metal dealers.