Two jailed for rhino horn theft (From Basildon Recorder)

Two jailed for rhino horn theft

8:00am Wednesday 3rd October 2012 in News By Jon Austin

TWO burglars who stole a valuable rhinoceros head from a museum have been caged.

Jamie Channon, 33, and friend Tony Moore, 30, broke into Haslemere Education Museum last May to steal the head for its valuable rhino horn.

There have been a spate of similar break ins organised by criminal gangs at museums and galleries across Europe to fuel a growing black market trade for the horns which are ground up and used in Chinese medicines.

Channon from Melba Gardens,Tilbury, and Moore from Ottowa Road, Tilbury, were arrested with a third man, who was never charged, after an appeal was broadcast on the BBC's Crimewatch programme after the theft.

The museum theft came during of a spate of break-ins at supermarkets across Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and Kent, in which £60,000 of cigarettes were stolen.

Channon and Moore, who had a string of previous conviction dating back to the 1990s, also admitted conspiracy to burgle 13 supermarkets.

Channon was jailed for a total of seven years and Moore for five years.