Falklands : North Freo raid nabs islands thief
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 08.10.2010 (Article Archived on 22.10.2010)
A Busselton man faces three years’ jail and a $36,000 fine after pleading guilty to stealing $63,000 of dairy equipment from the Falkland Islands.
North Freo raid nabs islands thief
By DAVID COHEN
POST, September 18, 2010 – Page 3
A Busselton man faces three years’ jail and a $36,000 fine after pleading guilty to stealing $63,000 of dairy equipment from the Falkland Islands.
The equipment, which included a $46,000 homogeniser, was found in a shipping container in North Fremantle after an international police investigation.
Kevin Reynolds was the manager of the Stanley Dairy and started work on the South Atlantic islands nearly five years ago.
Mr Reynolds and his wife Leone left the Falklands in January last year when Stanley Dairy owner, Falklands Islands Development Corporation, did not like a proposed business plan from Mr Reynolds.
The corporation had sunk more than $1 million into the dairy before the plan was proposed.
A month after the Reynolds left the Falklands, an audit revealed dairy equipment – including the expensive homogeniser and an egg incubator – was missing.
In March last year Fremantle detectives swooped on the North Fremantle container and executed a search warrant.
Local officers had worked with Royal Falkland Islands Police, Australian Federal Police’s Interpol division and Australian customs and border protection unit.
The detectives found personal items belonging to the Reynolds in the container as well as the stolen equipment.
Mr Reynolds appeared in Perth Magistrates’ Court on August 20 and pleaded guilty to one charge of bringing stolen goods into the state.
He will be sentenced next month.
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