Three men from South London have been sentenced to five years and three months in prison for a sophisticated burglary in which they stole nearly £1 million worth of the weight-loss drug Mounjaro from a pharmaceutical distribution site in St Albans.
Mark Harding, 55, of Feltham; Robert Townsend, 59, of Sutton; and Peter Costello, 44, of Sutton, broke into the site on Handley Page Way on 24 January by climbing through a duct behind an air conditioning unit and forcing open a walk-in fridge. Townsend acted as a lookout and had scouted the location a week earlier.
At St Albans Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Jonathan Mann KC described the burglary as “highly organised” and “sophisticated,” noting that the offenders had sprayed black paint on CCTV cameras and used tools to cut through the air conditioning unit. Some £35,000 in cash was found in a picnic basket at Harding’s home, and £19,900 behind an extractor fan at Townsend’s property. The stolen drugs, worth £944,544.89, have not been recovered.
Detective Sergeant Will Daglish of Hertfordshire Constabulary said: “This was a very serious crime – weight-loss drugs must be stored correctly and are dangerous if they are not administered in the right way. By breaking into the fridges storing the Mounjaro drug, their actions posed a serious health risk to the public.”
All three pleaded guilty to burglary. Harding and Townsend also admitted possession of criminal property and received concurrent nine-month sentences. Proceeds of crime proceedings will follow.
