Thief pulls off 'eggs-travagant theft' by stealing 200,000 creme eggs

A man is facing jail for stealing almost 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs - more than £31,000's worth.

Joby Pool, 32, pleaded guilty to theft and criminal damage after he broke into a Telford factory with a metal grinder last Saturday and used a stolen lorry cab to make off with the confectionary.

He is expected to be jailed for about two years next month for his sweet-tooth related crimes.

Prosecutor Owen Beale told Kidderminster magistrates court: “I don’t know if you have seen the news recently – there was a load that was stolen and on the trailer was Cadbury’s products, a large number of Creme Eggs.”

Pool was spotted by police and “gave up at junction 11 and walked towards the police with his hands up. He was arrested and the load was recovered”.

“This clearly wasn’t spur-of-the-moment offending, if I can put it like that, because he had taken with him a tractor unit and he had to know that the load was there in the first place,” said Beale.

Magistrates were told that Pool was previously convicted of theft, handling stolen goods and driving while disqualified in 2019.

Beale said: “This is clearly an organised criminal matter. You don’t just happen to learn about a trailer with that kind of value being available.”

Defence solicitor John McMillan, told the court that Pool understood a substantial sentence was likely.

“He stopped the vehicle when he realised he was being followed. Everything stolen had been recovered and that will no doubt assist the owners of the various items that have been taken,” he said.

“There has been no interference with the food products that were taken – they will be in a condition that they can go back on the shelves.”

In a series of tweets on Monday, West Mercia police described the incident as an “eggs-travagent theft” of a “chocolate collection box”.

“Shortly after the theft a vehicle, presumably purporting to be the Easter bunny, was stopped northbound on the M42 and a man was arrested on suspicion of theft,” they said.

Pool will be sentenced at Shrewsbury crown court on 14 March.

What a sticky situation.

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