Councillor on £94k salary jailed for launderette thefts

A former Tory councillor from Culham, near Abingdon, has been jailed for three years after admitting stealing £155,000 worth of coins from launderette machines.

Jonathan Woodley-Shead, 52, earned more than £94,000 as an engineer, servicing washing machines and tumble dryers for Armstrong Commercial Laundry Systems at 23 different laundrettes around the south of England.

But despite his comfortable lifestyle, he used a stolen company key to steal £1 and 20p coins from the machines he was working on between 2011 and 2015, pocketing an average of £4,000 every month.

Indeed, he appears to have made special trips to his clients - student halls and Army barracks - specifically to steal the cash. He planned his visits for Fridays and Saturdays to avoid bumping into his colleagues who emptied the machines from Monday to Thursday.
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According to Newbury Today, Woodley-Shead's bosses first became suspicious after he was seen at a customer site, RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, when a service call hadn't been booked.

After fitting a tracking device to his company car and tracing him to a Reading University launderette, they discovered that the cash boxes on all 24 machines had been opened.

Reading Crown Court heard that the grandfather-of-five lived a double life, and gave much of the money to friends, family and charity. Getting the truth out of him was 'like drawing teeth', said Judge Stephen John, as he attempted to minimise the extent of his theft.

"You were leading a carefree lifestyle on this money, with holidays, eating out, spending in shops and online," said the judge.

"I acknowledge some of the money was spent on charity and more laudable ways, but what these people didn't know was that the money they were receiving, apparently from your generosity, was in fact stolen."

He was elected as a Conservative councillor for Oxfordshire District Council's Sandford and the Wittenhams ward last year, but stepped down in July after just two months when his offences came to light.

"He has gone from being an outstanding member of his community, respected by others, to somebody who is now seen by his doctor for depression and somebody whose family has been torn apart," said his lawyer, Allan Walker.