Crime Solicitors

A Liverpool solider that stole expensive hi-tech army equipment and sold it through a friend on eBay has been dishonourably discharged from the army and handed a 20-month jail sentence.

Twenty-nine-year-old Steven Barratt took classified night-vision equipment, worth £115,000, from a camp in South Wales last year despite the fact that he was previously described as a “solider of distinction.” The court heard that he had excelled in several tours of duty abroad.

Barratt was caught out when police became aware of the sale of a piece of night vision equipment sold for £2,300 on the popular auction site. A further investigation found that it was one of the 28 night vision sights pinched from the Dering Lines Infantry Battle School and that the account was registered to a close childhood friend of Barratt, Jack Carroll.

Prosecuting lawyer, Nick Gedge revealed that the two men had planned extensively before the theft, with the pair travelling down to Wales together. He said: “It was the sort of equipment about which there is concern about them falling into the wrong hands. These were hi-tech, high quality pieces of equipment that should not be in any other but military hands.”

Barratt, who admitted theft, was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday while Carroll, who also pleaded guilty to the same charges, will serve a 12-month jail term.

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