Crook who bought stolen cars had swimming pool in house

A CROOK who bought stolen vehicles on the cheap and lived in a house with a swimming pool and sauna is facing a hearing to decide whether he benefited from his crimes.

David Ride was arrested after police spotted him driving a Ford Transit van with a false number plate, Derby Crown Court was told.

The officers then found in a storage unit a Vauxhall Insignia, a Volkswagen Beetle and a manual for a Audi A4 convertible – all vehicles that had been stolen during a burglary in Boulton Moor in December 2011.

On the driveway of the house he rented with his partner in Dale End Road, Hilton, were a Porsche and a Yamaha motorbike, both of which had been stolen in burglaries.

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The five stolen vehicles were worth almost £50,000.

The court heard Ride had paid £3,000 for the Porsche but it was not known how much he had spent on the other vehicles.

Siward James-Moore, prosecuting, said that, from the outside, Ride's house looked like a normal semi-detached home. Inside, though, there was a swimming pool, leather sofas, flat-screen TVs and expensive watches and bottles of whisky.

Officers seized £1,200 in cash from Ride, now of Sinfin Lane, Barrow-on-Trent.

The court was told that Ride had already served the equivalent of a 20-month jail sentence because he was remanded into custody after being arrested last March.

Handing him a six-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, Judge Ebraham Mooncey said: "You say you didn't know these vehicles came as a result of burglaries but it is quite common that people steal car keys and then drive the cars away.

"When you buy vehicles, you know they are stolen.

" If there weren't people like you, there wouldn't be people who were prepared to thieve so often."

He also ordered Ride to do 100 hours of unpaid work.

Ride admitted fraudulent use of a registration mark (a number plate) and five counts of handling stolen goods.

Avik Mukherjee, for Ride, said there was nothing in the case that suggested he was "in close proximity to the thefts" of the cars.

He said Ride's partner worked as an office manager and so they were not just relying on his income.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing will take place at a later date.