Due to the Aga Saga, a 5-year-old court case that branded two crooks with Rangemaster cookers for eBay sales have spared them jail.
Gary Thorn, 48 and Liam McMahon 50 respectively, seized two iconic stoves from the headquarters.
They then sold the stolen agas – which cost around £2,500 – for a cut price on the online auction site.
The two were tied together when the farmer who was based in Leamington Spa in Warks, gave them a tip. He drove by a layby when he spotted an all-new aga sitting in his white van and noticed that they had been tipped off.
McMahon’s involvement in the theft of expensive cookers was revealed by an internal investigation.
McMahon, Thorn and the investigation that started in 2016 were only concluded this week.
McMahon of Coventry changed his plea on the first day and confessed to stealing two cookers.
Thorn from Nuneaton (Warks.) admitted that he stole the agas in order to make them available on eBay.
Liam McMahon of Coventry changed his plea to admit to stealing two cookers.
Gary Thorn from Nuneaton (Warks.) admitted that he received the stolen agas in order to sell them on eBay
Both men were sentence to nine months in prison suspended for 12 months and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work.
Thorn was also ordered to pay £645 compensation and £100 costs, while McMahon was ordered to pay £300 compensation and £50 costs.
They were sentenced by Judge Anthony Potter on Tuesday.
‘You Mr McMahon took the Agas and you Mr Thorn bought them.
It is clear that this type of theft by employees has an affect on a company.
‘I bear in mind the allegations made against you and others was far greater at the start of this case, and I am not sentencing you for conspiracy, but for the occasion when you fell to temptation.
An Aga for a Kitchen with Rangemaster Cookware, which is hotly In Demand
“If I were sentencing in 2016 I may have thought about making the sentence immediate, but it’s five years later that I am sentencing.”
McMahon had been working for the firm for over ten years, before McMahon stole the cookers.
Prosecutor Sophie Murray said: ‘In September 2016 a local farmer alerted the company to suspicious activity in a layby near his farm, where an oven was being transferred from one of their vehicles into a white van.
‘There was an internal investigation during which tracker devices showed a number of Aga Rangemaster vehicles, including that one driven by McMahon, had made unscheduled stops in the same layby.
“It was noticed then that Aga Rangemaster Products were being sold online at much lower market prices.
Test purchases were conducted and revealed that stock locations had been altered to hide missing cookers.
The police investigated the matter and found that McMahon, Thorn and others were involved in a larger conspiracy to steal 60 cookers valued at tens to thousands of pounds.
The court accepted their pleas of guilty to the lesser charge after hearing there was not enough evidence to tie them to any more than two stolen cookers.
Andrew Copeland, Thorn’s lawyer, stated that Thorn is a man of good character who let himself down, and his family down.
“But we are not talking about a conspiracy, but two cookers.
“This is the case that has now been referred to at the bar as the Aga Saga. It has been on the go for so long.
Sarah Allen, McMahon’s lawyer, stated that the matter has been ongoing for some time and started with an even more severe offense.
He would have plead guilty if he had been accused of theft before the magistrates court.
“He lost his good job as a consequence, which has caused a lot of stress on him. This is a person who’s never had to deal with trouble in his life.