A lorry driver has admitted stealing a £70,000 shipping container from the Port of Liverpool.
Peter Willans committed the high value theft when criminals made threats towards his family, Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon. The incident was reported to police on January 20 this year after a trailer valued at £14,000 and its contents, thought to have been a £56,000 shipment of tyres, were stolen from Maritime Transport by a man in a Scania R580 HGV.
Appearing in the dock today, Tuesday, the 35-year-old pleaded guilty to theft, driving without a licence and driving without insurance. The court was told that his offending had been related to his "drug habit".
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Leila Taleb, defending, said that her client had been "coerced into doing it" due to "threats towards his family". Willans, of Ealand Road in Batley, West Yorkshire, will be sentenced at a later date.
He will next appear on September 21, and was been remanded into custody at his own request ahead of his sentencing by Judge David Swinnerton. Explaining his wish to be incarcerated, the thief said: "It's going to come to that anyway in the long run.
"I'd rather just get it started now and get my head into it. There were a lot of threats made towards my family."
Judge Swinnerton said that jail would help Willans to "keep away from drugs". He replied: "In a nutshell yeah, I want to go to prison to sort my life out."
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