Woman who went on crime spree stealing mini diggers in Staffordshire avoids jail
A woman who stole over £30,000 worth of diggers and woodchippers from a Staffordshire plant hire businesses has avoided jail.
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Chloe Platt, 29, visited plant hire companies and hired mechanical diggers, worth over £16,00 each, giving her own name and address, and then handed the keys to an accomplice who sold them to unsuspected buyers.
On November 28, 2022 Platt visited Ace Plant Line, Brereton, Rugeley, and hired a £16,000 digger to "clear her garden" and then the next day hired a £13,000 wood chipper from the same firm.
When Ace Plant Hire owners failed to get the digger back they tracked the electronic tracker down to a dust bin in a farm in Yoxall.
However, a second tracker was fitted to the digger and they tracked it down to another plant company which claimed they had bought it from a man the previous day. The wood chipper was never found.
The previous week Platt had hired another £16,000 digger from Mini Digger, from WNGP Limited in Uttoxeter, which she again failed to return.
Again the digger was tracked down to someone who had bought it from a mystery man.
