A LUNESDALE businessman has been jailed after admitting handling stolen tractors and trailers.

Edward Harrison, 26, who was sentenced to 35 months, was described by a judge as the ringleader of the sophisticated handling operation, based in Arkholme, near Kirkby Lonsdale.

Harrison was caught after police investigated thefts of tractors and trailers from around the country, Preston Crown Court heard.

They included a tractor and trailer worth together £96,000, stolen from Shipley in Yorkshire.

Officers discovered stolen items after searching Acorn Trading premises, owned by Harrison, a trailer dealer.

Stuart Cartmell, a salesman employed by Acorn Trading, had also become involved in handling stolen goods, as did another man that the employee knew.

Harrison, of High Street, Burton-in-Lonsdale, had pleaded guilty to two charges of handling, two of fraud and one of making a false statement.

Cartmell, 47, of Capernwray, had pleaded guilty to two offences of handling and one of making a false statement.

The judge, describing him as a willing acolyte, jailed him for 19 months.

The third defendant, Adam Kirk, 37, of Halton Park, Halton, near Lancaster admitted one offence of handling. He was given eight months prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 200 hours’ unpaid work.

Judge Norman Wright said: “There had been planned thefts, with vehicles ending up out of the area. It had been the sort of theft that doesn’t take place unless a thief knows there is a market where he can place the items concerned.”

He added: “It might be said that without handlers, there would be none or not many thieves.”

Sarah Johnston, prosecuting, told the court that between May 2009 and January 2010 a number of expensive farm tractors and trailers were stolen from various different places around the country.

She said “The prosecution case is these defendants obtained some of the stolen items.

“Some number plates of the vehicles were changed.

“Other steps were taken to alter their appearance and false representations made to the DVLA about the ownership of the vehicles.

“Thereafter, attempts were made to sell them.”