THE fourth member of a criminal gang has been sentenced and banned from Cumbria after a late night police chase in which tools of their trade were hurled from a speeding car.

Damien Maundrill, 32, had denied being involved in an illegal expedition involving men who travelled from their West Yorkshire homes to the Penrith area.

Police were on heightened patrol in the early hours of December 9, 2020, aware that curtain-sides HGVs were being targeted in the dead of night by thieves as truckers slept.

North of Penrith on the A6, officers saw a white Vauxhall Insignia containing four men in a lay-by with its lights on close to one such lorry.

“They were suspicious,” prosecutor Kim Whittlestone told Carlisle Crown Court. “As soon as they tried to pull up behind the vehicle it drove off at speed. Items were seen to be discarded from the vehicle.”

Other police were drafted in to assist and the car was stopped in Penrith town centre. Numerous pairs of gloves were inside, while a phone and angle grinder had been tossed away in transit. Efforts had also been made to prevent the registration number being read.

Three West Yorkshire men detained by police, admitted going equipped for theft and were sentenced by a judge in November. They were handed suspended jail terms and banned from Cumbria for 18 months.

The fourth — Maundrill, of Lowood Lane, Birstall, near Batley — denied the charge but was found guilty after a magistrates’ court trial of being a rear seat passenger in the car. He had a partner with children and had not committed any dishonesty crimes since December, 2020.

His barrister told the court that “unusually” for a defendant convicted at trial, Maundrill was “remorseful”. But Judge Louise Brandon noted he had continued to deny the offence.

A 12-month prison sentence was suspended for 18 months. Maundrill was banned from entering Cumbria during that period and must complete probation service rehabilitation work.

“Significant steps were taken to avoid detection,” Judge Brandon said of the crime. “There was clearly significant planning given what was recovered, the number of you involved and the distance which had been travelled.”