Angler netted £30,000 of stolen gear (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Angler netted £30,000 of stolen gear

6:58am Monday 21st January 2008 in Swindon By Gazette Reporter

Angler Matthew Hobin, who stole thousands of items of fishing tackle and camping gear to sell on the internet was jailed for two and a half years on Friday.

Hobin took almost £30,000 worth of goods from local stores while he and his ex-wife were also cheating the benefits system out of tens of thousands of pounds.

Now the 35-year-old, who has a long list of previous crime, is back behind bars after a judge branded him a profoundly dishonest man'.

And his former wife Donna, 35, who he was living with at the time of the offending and whose eBay account was used, escaped jail and was put on a suspended sentence.

Hobin pilfered and sold more than 5,000 items on the internet auction site as well as having a house like a veritable Aladdin's cave' of stolen property.

Lynne Henderson, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how two companies based at the Manor Garden Centre in Cheney Manor noticed they were losing a large amount of stock.

She said bosses at Hinders fishing tackle suppliers noticed unique items being offered for sale over the web so made test purchases.

When they arrived they found the sender's name and address to be Donna Hobin of Chippenham Walk, Penhill.

The police were contacted and when they raided the house in August 2006 officers found stolen property in every room.

"Officers described the house as a veritable Aladdin's cave. There were boxed items of fishing and camping equipment, DVDs, CDs and books in every room," she said.

"The police required two long wheel base transit vans to remove items to the police station."

Inquiries were then conducted at eBay where Hobin was found to have advertised up to £70,000 worth of goods.

A log of all transactions was obtained and it was found he had sold about 5,000 items, all of which he was to later admit were stolen.

On top of the fishing and camping gear, which came from In Tents, he admitted books, DVDs and CDs had been stolen from Asda Wall-Mart but claimed someone else had taken them.

Miss Henderson said the total of all the items stolen and either sold or stored at the home was in excess of £29,000.

The court was told that the couple were also being investigated in an entirely separate operation by benefits agencies.

Matthew Hobin claimed to be living away from his former wife in Manton Street, Rodbourne, while she said she was a single mum living at the Penhill address.

As a result they both obtained benefits as single people when in reality they were living together for the majority of the time.

He got £10,197.89p he wasn't entitled to and his ex-wife £12,320 meanwhile he had sub let part of his council house to a person his former wife knew from work.

Mr Hobin, admitted 30 counts of theft, 15 of money laundering and asked for 4,494 further offences of theft to be taken into consideration as well as three of benefit fraud.

Donna admitted one count of money laundering and two of benefit fraud.

Rob Ross, defending, said both if his clients were damaged' as a result of what they had experienced growing up and had children with emotional problems.

Though they had split up, he said, Mr Hobin started staying round at her home to help with looking after their daughters but they were not living as man and wife.

He said that Mr Hobin was a keen carp fisherman and started obsessively collecting fishing tackle before moving on the stealing it and then selling it.

The benefit fraud was also something which started as honest claims but they failed to notify the fact that they were pooling their resources and so financially together.

He said the money made was not spent on luxuries like fast cars or exotic holidays but on everyday living.

Passing sentence Judge John Dixon told Mr Hobin "In my judgement this was nothing short of plunder.

"You behaved over 15 months with breathtaking arrogance and dishonesty. The truth comes out in what you told the police. You did it because it gave you a buzz; you did it because it made you feel good.

"This was systematic and methodical dishonesty and places you firmly in the category of a profoundly dishonest man."

He jailed Mr Hobin for 30 months and Mrs Hobin for six months suspended for two years and told her to do 100 hours of community service and a one year probation order.