This is the video clip that helped nail farm tractor fence Hristo Chenchev.
The 26 second footage was sent to the 46-year-old Bulgarian by go-between David Riley, a member of the Kidlington-headquartered gang that took the tractors in May 2020
In it, a disembodied voice can be heard counting the six royal blue New Holland tractors that had been hidden in the undergrowth near Manor Park caravan site, near Kidlington, after they were stolen from a Cassington dealership.
“They're all identical. The same machines. All 2020, brand new,” the man says.
Prosecutor Oliver Wellings told Oxford Crown Court on Monday that each machine was worth around £60,000. Together, the haul was worth more than a third of a million pounds.
On the black market, they would command a fraction of that price.
Chenchev, with his links to Bulgaria, was accused of being ‘first in the queue’ of potential buyers for the agricultural plant stolen by the gang.
Jurors this week heard that within hours of three high-value thefts in Oxfordshire in May 2020, members of James ‘Jimmy’ Sheen’s gang were in contact with Chenchev.
Analysis of his phone showed he was searching the web about the tractor brands that had been filched. He also looked for news about one of the higher-value thefts.
Chenchev, of Greenwich, London, pleaded guilty part-way through his trial to conspiracy to convert criminal property.
He will be sentenced later this morning.
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