Dishonest Halfords workers sold £130,000 worth of dashcams on eBay in 'abuse of trust'
Three former Halford workers have been prosecuted for stealing new dashcams to sell on EBay
Three former Halfords online hub workers were caught out by their usernames after selling on brand new dashcams valued at more than £130,000 to eBay customers.
The defendants were based at the chain’s Birmingham online sales hub when the thefts were uncovered by a profit protection investigator working for the motoring and cycling goods company. The items had been sold on for around £96,000.
Richard Taylor, aged 56, of Woodcross, Bilston; Aaran Craker, aged 36, of Netherton; and Jonathan Edwards, aged 26, of Wednesfield; all pleaded guilty to a count each of theft by employee at Dudley Magistrates Court on May 19. The case relates to the theft of the goods between June 2024 and June 2025.
Sentencing them at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Michael Chambers KC said: “All three of you were charged separately by the magistrates. In effect there was commonality by the method used. Each played a role in sending items to legitimate customers.
“Each of you abused your position of trust. Each of you saw an opportunity to abuse your job and stole on a systematic scale for your own personal benefit.
“The court has heard that as a result the division was not profitable and jobs were put on risk.”
Hub team leader Taylor, of Woodcross Street, Woodcross, stole £62,306.11 worth of goods with 274 individual items sold on eBay in the 12 months preceding June 2025 under the username ‘Romanrichtay’. Craker, of Marlow Close, Netherton, who had previous convictions for robbery dating to 2009, stole £24,508.19 under the username ‘Casty79’.
Edwards, of Exmoor Green, Wednesfield, sold on £9,978 worth of stock under the username ‘Autotech09’.
In its business impact statement Halfords stated the actual registered retail price of the goods was higher at a combined £130,323.61 and that the division had seen approximately £200,000 worth of goods stolen in that financial year.
The hubs would have been in profit if the items had not been stolen. The court heard the division of 15 hubs had faced the possibility of being closed down with redundancies threatened as a result.
Holly Kilbey, prosecuting, said the thefts came to light after the investigator spotted a number of accounts trading the stock on eBay and so put in an order for himself. When it arrived he then requested an address label to return it and the address was the same as the address Halfords had on file for Taylor.
He conducted interviews and all three subsequently left the company. Taylor and Craker resigned while Edwards was dismissed.
All three were also interviewed by West Midlands Police and admitted what they did.
Taylor and Edwards had no previous offences, but the court heard that Craker had 11 convictions for 24 offences and had served 44 months in youth detention in 2009.
Mitigating for Craker, defence barrister Richard Davenport said: “There is no evidence that the defendants were working together. They took advantage of the situation they were in.
“Craker is distinguished from the others due to his criminal record and spent 44 months in youth offenders’ institution.
“He says at the time of this offence he’d got into a dire financial situation. Since then his partner has found a job and he has found a new job as a tyre fitter and they are doing much better.”
The court heard that Halfords recouped wages of around £1,900 from each of them.
For the offence Judge Chambers sentenced Taylor and Craker to 14 months in prison, suspended for two years. Edwards was sentenced to eight months, also suspended for two years.
All three must also carry out 150 hours of unpaid work in the community. If they fail to complete it the custody element will be activated, meaning they will go to prison.
There will also be a proceeds of crime hearing at later date to recoup further sums from them.