Unpaid work for middleman in Oxfordshire stolen tractor conspiracy

Hristo Chenchev, 46, had for months maintained his innocence to allegations he was involved in a conspiracy to buy tractors stolen by Kidlington-based Jimmy Sheen’s gang and spirit them abroad to be sold in Eastern Europe.

But after his trial collapsed on Tuesday and the jury had to be discharged, the Bulgarian national U-turned and pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to convert criminal property between April and May 2020.

READ MORE: Guilty pleas as tractor fence U-turns during trial

His involvement with Sheen’s gang had come to a shuddering halt at the end of May 2020, when he was arrested near the group’s Manor Park caravan site base along with £8,000 cash, stolen tractors worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and two lorries onto which the vehicles could be loaded.

Analysis of his phone revealed that in the hours after the thefts he had been in close contact with go-between David Riley and other members of the gang. The members of the gang, who received almost 75 years in jail last year, had moved on to stealing tractors and even broke into the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket after mixed success blowing up and dragging out cash machines.

Among the messages received from the gang was a video, sent to Chenchev by Riley, that showed someone counting the six royal blue New Holland tractors stolen from a Cassington site and each worth £60,000.

When police later searched the fence’s home in London, they found more than £40,000 in Bank of England notes. Chenchev claimed the cash was from business deals in his native Bulgaria, jurors heard on Monday.

On Wednesday (March 22), when Chenchev returned to court to be sentenced, prosecutor Oliver Wellings said: “This defendant’s role was that of a fence, buying tractors which he knew to be stolen on the cheap then organising their onward transportation to buyers in Eastern Europe.”

While the fence was buying the vehicles from Sheen’s men for perhaps as little as a third or less of their true value, he could have expected to make a profit on his purchases if the tractors were sold abroad.

READ MORE: Prosecutor outlines case against tractor 'fence'

He previously claimed he was unaware the tractors, which had been hidden in woodland near Manor Park, were stolen. But Chenchev was said to have told a probation officer after his guilty plea on Tuesday that ‘he knew deep down the tractors he was attempting to sell were likely stolen’.

Sentencing him to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, Recorder John Hardy KC told the defendant: “You allowed yourself to become embroiled in the activities of a gang who were stealing top end agricultural equipment in the form of tractors.

“These vehicles were high calibre, sophisticated vehicles costing their owners in some cases in excess of £60,000.”

As part of his sentence, Chenchev, of Greenwich, London, was ordered to do 250 hours of unpaid work.

Click here to sign up to the Crime and Court newsletter (Image: Newsquest)