A once promising footballer stole £30,000 of chewing gum to settle a drug debt.
Ellis Benecke, 20, from Leeds, has narrowly escaped jail after he carried out a three-man drugs raid in Gloucestershire. The gang of thieves targeted a lorry parked up at the M5 services near Gloucester in the early hours of May 4 this year.
As the driver slept in their cab, the gang cut open the lorry’s side, removing seven of 19 pallets inside before loading them into their waiting vehicle. The gang fled after another driver spotted the theft and alerted police, Gloucester Crown Court was told.
