'Utterly dishonest' council worker stole life-saving equipment and sold it on eBay

HE TOOK ITEMS WORTH MORE THAN £13,700 TO EASE HIS OWN 'COST OF LIVING CRISIS'

- By PETER CRAIG

AN “utterly dishonest” council worker stole life-saving equipment and security devices, valued at more than £13,700, to sell on eBay to ease his own “cost of living crisis”.

The lifeline pendants and Key Safe security equipment items were intended to be used by vulnerable people to help them live independently but “greedy” council technician Daniel Kelly “dipped his hand in the till” and shamelessly helped himself to them in a “systematic” theft, a court heard.

Kelly, 27, of Victory Way, Bridlington, admitted stealing products, valued at £13,768, from his employers, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, at Driffield and an offence of fraud by false representation at Bridlington between November 4, 2019 and July 24, 2023.

Billy Torbett, prosecuting, told Grimsby Crown Court that the Key Safe box suppliers became concerned when some of their equipment started appearing on the sales website, eBay, at a reduced price. Investigators alerted East Riding of Yorkshire Council when they bought some of the items off eBay and they matched the batch numbers sold to the council previously.