Blackburn man handled £24k worth of stolen power tools

Dexter Slater, 24, was arrested in July 2021 following the delivery of a suspicious parcel to a house in Waddington.

Slater pleaded guilty to handling of stolen goods and not guilty to fraud by false representation in February this year.

In total, 10 orders were sent to homes close to Slater’s home address, all from an online company called FFX which sells power tools and accessories.

The orders were reported by the company as potentially fraudulent as they believed they were being bought using potentially stolen credit cards.

Slater allowed his address on Whittaker Drive and others in his street to be used for the delivery of parcels, and he would then arrange to collect them on behalf of others.

He came to the attention of police when four parcels were delivered to a house in Waddington and Slater arrived around five minutes later saying he was the man they were addressed to.

The owner of the house recognised him to be somebody else and refused to hand over the parcels, proceeding to take a photo of Slater and the registration of his car before reporting the incident to the police.

Police traced the registration number and attended Slater’s home address on July 22, where the same vehicle was found outside and Slater was wearing the same clothing as in the photo.

Slater was arrested and interviewed later that day, where he provided no comment responses to all questions.

Mitigating, David Morton said Slater was “young, naïve, and foolish, and full of regret about his involvement in this”. He added that he “never wished to cause the impact this caused to others financially.”

Mr Morton continued by saying Slater was not truly aware of what was in the parcels and was not involved in the ordering of them.

Talking about Slater’s personal circumstances, he said he has a young daughter who he has 50/50 care over with his former partner, and they are on “good and friendly terms.”

Passing sentence, Judge Richard Gioserano said: “If I was sentencing you for this being your scam, you would be going to prison. The basis amounts to this not being your scam and you effectively going along with someone else’s idea to clear a debt you had.

“In the end it was £24,000 worth of power tools which passed through your hands. It didn’t seem to take much to turn you into a criminal.”

Judge Gioserano sentenced Slater to a 12-month community order with 10 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 180 hours of unpaid work for the offence of handling, and accepted the not guilty plea for fraud.

He added: “I hope you have learnt your lesson this time and that we are not going to see you again.”