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Aer Lingus flight at Manchester Airport(Image: Adam Vaughan)<\/p>\nA judge said the crime became “systematic” and “nearly everybody seemed to be at it”Aer Lingus flight at Manchester Airport(Image: Adam Vaughan)<\/p>\n
Cleaning staff working on an Aer Lingus aircraft were caught nicking alcohol, cigarettes and Pringles<\/a>. The Irish airline became suspicious after two of its aircrafts based at Manchester Airport<\/a> experienced \u2018significant stock loss\u2019.<\/p>\n Manchester Crown Court <\/a>heard secret cameras were installed on the planes, which caught 10 employees of a company subcontracted to clean the aircraft helping themselves to items. The thieves would cut seals open to gain access to their loot, and use tools to break open security seals.<\/p>\n Connor Brooks, 28, Jonathan Etchells, 39, Dylan Nelson, 20, Richard Armer, 28, Usman Ghani, 25, Katie Moran, 36, Ciaran Lynch, 31, Mark Hicks, 37, Roman Mahmood, 21, and Shawn Bailey, 52, all admitted theft, reports the MEN.<\/a><\/p>\n Prosecuting, Philip Hall said the defendants were all working for a company subcontracted to clean two Aer Lingus planes based at Manchester Airport. <\/a>The aircraft flew between Manchester and New York.<\/a><\/p>\n Covert cameras were installed onto the aircraft after the airline became aware of \u2018significant stock loss\u2019 during May and June 2023, with cigarettes, alcohol and perfumes going missing.<\/a><\/p>\n The cameras, in operation over a few days in July and August that year, caught cleaning staff red-handed, breaking into storage containers and trolleys, cutting seals and opening security tags.<\/a><\/p>\n On Saturday, July, 29, the cameras caught Brooks and Bailey checking the weight of containers to investigate which ones contained items. Brooks said: \u201cNah, s*** again man.\u201d While Etchells said: \u201cIt\u2019s not worth doing.\u201d Brooks said: \u201cIt\u2019s been a bad day for the last five.\u201d Prosecutors claimed that showed it was not the first day they had stolen from the aircraft.<\/p>\n Brooks told Ghani \u2018get your clippers\u2019 after noting a container was \u2018full of Pringles\u2019. On July 30, Moran joked to Brooks, Etchells and Hicks as they were searching containers, telling them \u2018you\u2019re under arrest\u2019.<\/p>\n The footage showed alcohol and sleeves of cigarettes being stolen. Brooks could be seen stuffing miniature bottles of alcohol into a pillow case.<\/p>\n The thieves could be heard discussing stealing perfumes, to which Moran and Etchells both said they had “loads at home”. Brooks replied: \u201cI want more, or is that too greedy?\u201d<\/p>\n Later, Brooks talked about not getting “too greedy”. As Brooks stuffed boxes of perfumes into a pillow case, Nelson told him: \u201cNice little day today Connor.\u201d<\/p>\n He replied \u2018I\u2019ve hit it for the last five\u2019, before adding \u2018well it\u2019s my third day today\u2019. On August 1, Armer and another person could be seen using a \u2018red axe\u2019 to break the security seal for a container containing three small tubes of Pringles.<\/p>\n \u201cHe appears to have gone to a lot of effort to steal some crisps,\u201d Mr Hall said. Minutes later, Armer could be heard laughing as he opened the door to a container before someone else took more tubes of Pringles.<\/p>\n \u201cThieving ba*****s,\u201d he said, referring to colleagues. During the period in which the cameras were installed, \u20ac1,290.10 worth of products were stolen from the two aircraft.<\/p>\n