I think it’s safe to say that most people at one time or another have found something and taken it home quite innocently with a slight doubt as to where it came from, but this case from Salford Magistrates Court in December 1965 shows how one man took the principle to the extreme.
When police raided builder Vincent Linnane’s house, they were shocked to find it was stacked floor to ceiling with stolen goods, including four kitchen sinks.
Linnane was employed by building contractor Wimpey’s at a site in Hightown, Broughton, Salford.
On Sunday 8 December at 4.45pm PC Watkins was on duty when he saw Linnane carrying a box of tiles to his car. His suspicion aroused, the enterprising officer went to speak to the man, however Linnane had other ideas and ran to hide.
When the police officer inevitably caught up with the unfortunate man, he was taken to Salford police station on the Crescent for questioning.
Linanne feigned outraged innocence to the investigating officer DC Gardner, saying: “I’m a honest man, I wouldn’t steal a thing”.
When asked for his address so officers could corroborate the story, Linnane agreed and promptly gave his mother’s address in Salford.
Eventually it was ascertained that that he actually lived in Levenshulme.
Detective Sergeant Wright was amazed at what he found at the house.
He told the court that all the light fittings, wiring, plumbing, hot water cistern, upstairs toilet, bathroom suite, even the door and window frames were all stolen.
In one room four sink units were found to be screwed to the wall, one above the other, and were being used as food larders and cupboards!
One room in the house was so full that the doors had to be removed so that officers could gain admittance to view the stolen merchandise.
The back garden would also prove to be a treasure trove of stolen goods.
The police found several hundred wall tiles, two dozen sacks of cement, forty gallons of paint, and numerous items from the building site which had found their way there.
Some of the property was taken to the police station for safe keeping and placed in a cell where Linnane was asked if he recognised it.
He admitted: “Yes, it’s all stolen, apart from that bath,” which apparently was a fixture of the cell.
He was remanded in custody for a week whilst further enquiries were made.
This was despite his mother, speaking in what was described as being a ‘broad Irish accent’ asking for mercy so that her son could spend time at home with his small family at Christmas.
Linnane appeared before the court the following week charged with stealing 160 floor tiles from employer George Wimpey.
A police officer told the court that the value of the stolen property would be around £3,000 to anybody purchasing it, but the actual cost to the firm was £1,006, however some of it could not be recovered “because it had been installed in the house”.
Linnane took to the witness box and apologised for stealing the property adding that this was the first time he had stolen anything (!) and the house he and his wife and small family lived in was in a bad condition when he moved in and he wanted to improve it and started by taking small things but it just grew as time went on.
The Magistrate however sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment which meant that the poor man would be separated from his family for the Christmas period which I find to be rather sad.
It does bring new meaning to the expression ‘kitchen sink and all’, I suppose.
