Cabbie jailed for grabbing gold medal

Pinsent kept medal in an airline sponge bag

A taxi driver has been jailed for four months for trying to steal a briefcase containing Olympic hero Matthew Pinsent's gold medal.

Terry Sandford, 42, grabbed the rower's leather case and stashed it in the boot of his black cab after spotting it in a car park at Heathrow airport on October 6 last year.

Mr Pinsent, 30, had inadvertently left the case, with his medal tucked into an airline sponge bag, on the roof of his car as he rushed to meet his Canadian girlfriend Dee Koutsoukos's flight from Toronto.

The oarsman, who has won three consecutive Olympic gold medals, had returned home just days earlier after winning the gold in the Coxless Fours in Sydney, with team mates Sir Steve Redgrave, Tim Foster and James Cracknell.

My girlfriend was sure I had put it inside the car with her luggage

Matthew Pinsent

Earlier this month, a jury at Isleworth crown court had cleared Sandford, of Bexleyheath, south-east London, of theft but found him guilty of attempted theft.

Mr Pinsent had told the court: "Suddenly I realised I did not have the briefcase with me.

"My girlfriend was sure I had put it inside the car with her luggage. I immediately trusted her."

'Panic'

But on returning to the car and finding the case missing, Mr Pinsent said he felt "shock, panic and a feeling of stupidity about allowing it to be stolen".

He immediately alerted police and then rang his agent who suggested he talk to the media.

The court heard that police soon questioned Sandford but he failed to answer, saying later he had been scared by the officer's gun.

Sandford, who had worked for 26 years as a taxi driver, later told police he had been given the briefcase by an unknown driver as they were stopped at traffic lights.

Mr Sandford denied the charges

The married father-of-two called the athlete's agent and eventually on speaking to Mr Pinsent said: "I've got one wallet, and I've got one medal...It's in my cab and you cannot get safer than the back of a London cab," the court heard.

At the same court on Friday, Judge Hezlett, passing sentence, said the theft was a breach of trust.

The public expected "the highest standards of behaviour" from taxi drivers, he told Sandford.

"Your dishonesty is a breach of those standards."