A REMOVALS man abused his position by stealing a £5,000 carriage clock from a dead woman’s home.

Wayne Carter, 39, of Windrush, Highworth, put the clock up for sale on the eBay auction website after stealing it from a house in Somerford Road, Cirencester, last October, Gloucester Crown Court was told.

But he was caught when a member of the women’s family spotted it on the site and alerted police.

Carter admitted theft and also admitted that the offence put him in breach of a suspended sentence he received from Swindon magistrates in November 2009 for an offence of domestic violence.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC jailed him for 12 weeks for the theft of the clock and ordered the 10-week suspended sentence to run consecutively – making a total of 22 weeks.

“When you saw this clock I am quite certain you knew it was valuable and decided to take it,” said the judge.

“There were then opportunities to return it but you didn’t.”

Derek Ryder, prosecuting, said Carter was working for the firm Smart Movers which was employed to clear a house in Somerford Road after the death of the elderly woman owner.

Later the family realised that the carriage clock, which had been in a cupboard at the house, was missing.

They called the police who in turn contacted eBay, which led to the defendant.

By that time an offer of £2,750 had been made on the clock but Carter still had it and it was recovered.

Mr Ryder said that family member Jackie Shopland-Reed had made a statement expressing how upset relatives were about the theft.

“This clock had great personal value, especially as it belonged to our late mother, who had recently passed away,” she stated.

“The trauma caused by this has been considerable.”

Mr Ryder said the domestic violence case involved Carter hitting his partner with a shoe and head-butting her, causing a bloody nose.

He had previous convictions for shoplifting and other dishonesty, Mr Ryder said.

Carole Knotts, defending, accepted that Carter was guilty of a ‘gross breach of trust’ by abusing his position as a removals man licensed to go into other peoples’ homes.

He was a former heroin addict but had turned his life around in recent years.

Ms Knotts said: “He has been employed in the removals business for many years and this is the first time this has happened.

“It was a spur of the moment decision on his part. He is very disappointed in himself for having done this and for having brought enormous shame on his family.”

Judge Tabor said there had to be an immediate custodial term for the offence which caused further upset to a grieving family.