News

The owners of an Essex-based haulage firm have been cleared by a court of a £1.5m theft charge.

Jason Sumpton, 37, and his stepfather Raymond Jude, 53, who trade as R&J European, of Purfleet, were declared not guilty of conspiracy to steal by Maidstone Crown Court.

The prosecution had alleged that the two men, plus driver David Thorpe, were responsible for the disappearance of 41 pallets of cosmetics from Coty UK on an industrial  estate in Ashford, Kent.

The court had been told that an unknown man, driving a hired trailer, had left a false name and number plate when he arrived at the depot to pick up the consignment destined for Spain and Italy.

In his defence, Sumpton said he had no connection to the man who collected the consignment. He told the court he had sent a driver from R&J to pick up the goods only to find they had already gone.