2:15pm Friday 16th May 2008
By Charley Morgan
A JUDGE has warned a group of teenagers who carried out a six-year vendetta against a west Wiltshire milkman they could be facing a prison sentence.
District Judge Simon Cooper told the five, all from Bradford on Avon, their targeted campaign of theft was shocking and reprehensible' and the community needed to see justice done.
Luke Hammerton, of Avon Close, Gradyn Runyeard-Hunt, of Winsley Road, and Ashley Keirl, of Kingston Avenue, all 18, along with a 17 year old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted stealing dairy products worth an estimated £12,000 from milkman Michael Bulling between 2001 and 2007 at Chippenham magistrates' court on Wednesday.
A further joint charge of harassment against Mr Bulling was withdrawn.
The four, along with 18 year old Samuel Jordan, of Avon Close, also admitted carrying out a burglary at Planks Dairy in Poulshot near Devizes in September 2007.
The court heard that over a period of years the group repeatedly stole milk and other dairy products from people's doorsteps in Bradford on Avon and the surrounding area.
They followed milkmen on their rounds in the early hours of the morning, sometimes riding on scooters alongside the milk floats while stealing from them and verbally abusing and intimidating Mr Bulling and his staff.
They set up a website on Bebo called BESMBE (Bradford Early Street Milk Blagging Elite), which chillingly included a photo of Mr Bulling's parents' gravestone, and bragged about their crimes without realising it was being monitored by police.
Prosecuting, Tessa Hingston said: "This caused a great deal of distress, annoyance and nuisance to the local residents. But in particular it affected Michael Bulling and his staff.
"The verbal abuse and harassment meant that the milkmen were forced to return to the yard, change their routes or abandon them altogether."
Many of his staff took early retirement or left and Mr Bulling eventually sold most of his business to Dairy Crest.
The police investigation continued over years but it proved difficult to identify exactly who had committed the crimes, until September last year when the five were caught red-handed stealing £150 worth of dairy products from Plank's Dairy.
Miss Hingston said it was likely many more were involved over the years and that Jordan's older brother had been one of the instigators of the vendetta.
Each of the defendant's solicitors said they had been drawn into the campaign but were not ringleaders, had admitted their crimes had got out of hand and were truly sorry.
Andrew Watts Jones said Runyeard-Hunt suffered from mild Asperger's syndrome and the others wound him up because it was fun to see what happened'.
Judge Cooper adjourned the case for reports to be prepared on the five.
He added: "What's evident to me is that you have deprived good men of their living and the satisfaction of a job well done. On of the things I will consider for the benefit of the community and to deter others from offending in this way is a custodial sentence."
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