Alcopops gang sentenced

Thousands of pounds worth of alcopops were taken from the lorry

A man has been jailed for seven years for helping to dispose of a lorryload of stolen alcopops.

Geoffrey Royal, 29, was involved in a sophisticated operation to kidnap a sleeping lorry driver and steal drinks valued at nearly £20,000 before setting fire to the vehicle.

The driver was attacked with a stun gun and tied up by the hijackers.

Royal was one of five men sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Friday for their roles in the lorry hijack which left a driver traumatised and unable to return to work.

Warehouse accomplices

None of the men were involved in the kidnap of the driver and only Royal knew that the attack had taken place but all played different roles in concealing the alcohol and disposing of the vehicle, the court heard.

The lorry was delivering nearly 2,000 cases of alcopops to a brewery in Derbyshire on May 14 last year when his lorry was hijacked as he slept in a lay-by at Stretton en le Field, Leicestershire.

The court heard Royal, of Manor Street, Accrington, met the lorry in Lancashire, where he drove it to a warehouse in Standish, Wigan.

Three co-defendants, Mark Norris, 37, David Hilton, 35, and David Young, 48, helped unload the vodka drinks into the warehouse, which was already full of whisky, beer and red wine.

False imprisonment

Royal then continued to drive the Eddie Stobart vehicle to Cumbria, where he was met by 27-year-old Stephen Catterall who supplied him with turpentine to set the vehicle alight.

Norris, of Elgin Street, Bolton, and Hilton, of Moss Bank Close, Astley Bridge, Bolton, were jailed for 18 months each after they admitted handling a quantity of alcopops, knowing or believing that they were stolen.

Catterall, 27, of Musbury Crescent, Rawtenstall, Lancashire, was given a five-month curfew order after he pleaded guilty to arson.

Young, 48, of Hough Lane, Bramley Cross, Bolton, was given 80 hours community punishment and a three-month curfew order for assisting in the removal of the load from the lorry.

Royal, 29, admitted assisting unknown offenders who had committed robbery, kidnap and false imprisonment, to dispose of an articulated lorry and its contents.