Criminal Leeds mechanic worked on stolen motorcycles for cash from his home in Seacroft

Joseph Thrush kept the bikes in his garden and inside his home as he fixed them up for criminals, after they had been stolen from victims including delivery drivers. He was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court this week for a string of offences over an almost two-year period.

On October 7, 2020, police were deployed to Seacroft on an unrelated matter and saw the 25-year-old acting suspiciously outside his home in Barncroft Drive. They went into his rear garden and found two motorcycles before searching his house, where three pedal cycles were found.

One pedal cycle worth £550 had been stolen from a garden shed just two days before. No evidence was put forward that the other bikes were stolen. Thrush was arrested and cautioned.

On November 27 the same year, police were sent to the defendant’s home address following reports that motorcycles had been pushed in. Officers recovered a Honda scooter from his kitchen, which had been stolen from a secure car park while its owner was at work.

On March 16, 2021, a delivery driver was collecting food from a restaurant in Great George Street when his Honda motorcycle was stolen. Police tracked the location of the motorcycle in real-time from Leeds city centre to Seacroft, where it was recovered at a house on Monkswood Hill.

Thrush’s fingerprints were found on the body of the vehicle. The victim said the theft “hit him hard” as it meant he could not work for several days, and he had to fork out £950 in repairs.

On April 12, 2021, police went to the defendant’s home to arrest him and noticed a Honda motorcycle which had been hidden by a cover in the hallway. The £2,600 motorbike belonged to a Deliveroo driver and had been stolen from outside his mum’s home. Thrush was arrested and cautioned again.

On May 7 that year, police returned to Thrush’s home after a member of the public saw a motorbike being taken into his back garden. Officers located a stolen Parilla motorcycle worth around £1,000. The victim said it would have cost her around the same to repair the damage that had been caused.

The final offence relates to July 3, 2022, when officers tracked a stolen Keeway motorbike to Thrush’s back garden. They found the defendant in the garden wearing a motorcycle helmet and he attempted to run off.

He failed to get out of the garden and swung his helmet at a police officer, striking him to his arm and forehead and causing injuries. In a statement, the officer said he thought it was a “deliberate act” to injure him and that Thrush had also been verbally abusive.

Thrush pleaded guilty to six counts of handling stolen goods and one count of assaulting an emergency worker, but not until the day a trial was due to begin. He has 10 previous convictions for 26 offences, including seven for dishonesty and two for violence.

Prosecutor Sarah Hopkinson told the court: “There was clearly some advanced knowledge of the primary offences.”

In mitigation, Matthew Stewart said the defendant was struggling to cope with the loss of his father at the time he committed the offences, and that he had been a “young man that lacked maturity”.

He pointed out that there had been no offending since July last year, and that there had been a “significant change” in the defendant’s behaviour since being in a stable relationship with his current partner.

Judge Andrew Stubbs KC concluded that Thrush worked on the motorbikes for cash and knew they were stolen, and sentenced him on that basis. He told Thrush: “I could very easily send you to prison today. But it’s the last thing any judge wants to do.

“It seems to me that the developing relationship which you have, which has kept you out of trouble for a long period of time, and the fact you haven’t committed offences while you’ve been on court bail, it gives you a chance to do something different.

“I’m giving you this chance. If you don’t take it, you’ll come back in front of me and I’ll send you away.”

Thrush was given a two-year community order which includes 240 hours of unpaid work, a three month curfew and 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.