High value car and safe stolen in Co Durham farm and house burglaries
Date of alert:
Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Crime Ref:
Force:
Durham Constabulary
A teenager took part in two burglaries in a week, both said to have “professional hallmarks”, targeting a farmhouse and a property containing a safe, earlier this year.
Tom Beeston, then aged 19, may have been acting on information from within the criminal underworld in targeting the properties burgled.
A high value vehicle was stolen from a farm barn in east Durham and the safe, containing more than £14,000, was taken from a house on the outskirts of Bishop Auckland.
Co-accused Kearan Briggs and Shay Johnson were also involved in the removal of the safe, from the home of an 83-year-old man, who was briefly away from the property during the day-time when the trio struck.
Beeston was given prison sentences totalling 50 months, while Briggs received a 36-month sentence, and, as Judge Adkin accepted he was the least criminally sophisticated, Johnson received a 15-month sentence, suspended for two years, with a six-month 7am to 7pm home curfew.
He must also complete 30 rehabilitation activity days with the Probation Service.
