A CROOKED businessman who handled £50,000 of handmade parts stolen from a luxury sports car dealer has avoided jail.

Ricky Cann, 51, of Silchester Corner, Great Wakering, received the expensive components from a dishonest employee at an Aston Martin heritage firm, a court heard.

He then sold them on for large sums of money.

But the lucrative handling racket was smashed by police when his “unauthorised supplier” was filmed acting suspiciously by hidden cameras installed at the premises of Aston Martin specialist RS Williams, in Cobham, Surrey.

Last month he was found guilty by a jury of eight charges of handling stolen goods and one of fraud.

The court was told Cann handled the stolen components during the 21 months between February 2008, and March last year.

Jill Beale, prosecuting, said police raided Cann’s home on March 1 last year after the arrest of a man who worked for RS Williams.

She said: “The employee named Cann as someone he had supplied with stolen parts.”

Mrs Beale said Neil Thompson, the managing director of RS Williams, went with police when they swooped at the defendant’s place and found a large quantity of parts.

The court heard bosses of RS Williams became aware three years ago that items had been going missing from the company, which buys, sells and restores Aston Martin cars.

Cann denied all the offences during a week-long trial, claiming he had no idea the Aston Martin components had been stolen. But jurors refused to accept his claims.

The defendant had been warned to prepare himself for jail, but instead he was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years. He was ordered to do 280 hours of unpaid work and told to observe a four-month curfew from 8pm to 5am every day.

In addition he was ordered to pay £4,020 costs.

Now police have begun confiscation proceedings aimed at clawing back all cash profits made by Cann as a result of his crimes. The confiscation hearing is expected to take place later this year.

Rai Patel, defending, said his client had been involved with Aston Martin cars for 20 years and the court proceedings had imposed heavy strain on his relations with his family.

He said: “He has been awaiting trial for a long time. He has also had the added strain of confiscation proceedings to face.”

He was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court yesterday.