Handling stolen carpet earns curfew for Whitchurch man, 18

Eighteen-year-old Joshua Jiggins, of Manor Place, admitted handling the carpet which others had stolen from a house owned by the Meres and Mosses Housing Association.

Mrs Abigail Hall told Shrewsbury Magistrates Court that the housing association had laid the carpet in a house in Manor Place ahead of a new tenant moving in to the property.

She said that between November 15, 2014, and November 24, 2014, while the property was unoccupied, the new stairway carpet had been taken from the building.

Mrs Hall said: "A member of the housing association staff was in another property when she noticed what she believed to be the carpet roughly nailed to the stairs.

"She made inquiries and found the tenant had bought it from the defendant who had worked as a middle man for the thieves," Mrs Hall told the magistrates.

At court yesterday, Jiggins was given a three-month curfew between 8pm and 7am. He was also ordered by the magistrates to pay £50 compensation, £85 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

Mr Brendan Reedy, for Jiggins, said his client had no part in the theft.

But Jiggins had been paid £10 to pass the stolen carpet on to the buyer, Mr Reedy told the court.