A mechanic who used stolen car parts to fix up written-off vehicles to sell has been spared prison.
Brian Robinson "created a market for burglars" by handling car parts worth thousands of pounds, which were stripped from vehicles stolen in house burglaries. Newcastle Crown Court heard four cars sold by Robinson online were found to contain parts from vehicles which had been stolen.
Joe Hedworth, prosecuting, told the court: "On four occasions the defendant purchased accident-damaged vehicles at auction to match stolen car parts removed from vehicles already stolen in burglaries. The vehicles were purchased according to available stolen car parts and he resold the accident-damaged vehicles via Gumtree."
