CINDERFORD man Lee Davies has gone on trial accused of being involved with his father in the theft of large amounts of cable from a Forest company.

At Gloucester Crown Court his dad David Davies, 55, has admitted eight charges of handling drums of stolen electrical cable and selling it to a scrap dealer even though it was brand new.

Lee, 23, denies eight charges of stealing numerous similar drums of cable valued at just over £1,000 from his employers over three months last year. The case against David Davies has been adjourned until after his son's trial.

Both men live at Cedardean, Cinderford and the court was told that at the time of the alleged offences, Lee Davies worked for Dean Electrical Wholesale in the Forest Vale Industrial Estate.

Philip Warren, prosecuting, told the jury the case centred around the theft of electrical cable on quite a large scale.

"Some of it was given to his father and he sold it as scrap to Simms Metals in Cinderford, even though this was largely unused cable still on its drums and with the wrappings in place," he said.

"The defendant denies that he stole any cable at all, but his father David Davies has admitted to handling a total of 1,585kg of cable knowing it was stolen.

"The charges against both men are specimen counts. Much more stock was taken but the prosecution is not able to say exactly how much or where it ended up – apart from one drum which was found at their home."

Mr Warren alleged the nature of the scam was that Lee took the new cable from his employers and passed some of it on to his father, who sold it as scrap for cash.

"The serial number on some of the drums is unique to Dean Electrical and is used by their supplier in Turkey," he said.

"This number was still on some of the drums of cable found at the scrap metal dealer's premises.

"Lee Davies had worked at Dean Electrical for about five years and was in a trusted position."

Dean Electrical managing director Dennis Boseley told the court that part of Davies' job was to transfer stock to sister company Sparkpack and to send items out to other firms.

He said: "We noticed a lot of cable was going missing – 10 drums from a pallet or sometimes more.

"When the paperwork was checked we found that although say, 20 drums of cable had been ordered from bulk stock, only 10 was supplied to the customer.

"The only people responsible for this work were my son and Lee Davies."

When Davies was interviewed about the missing cable he admitted taking small amounts but not the large amounts which had gone missing. He was sacked for gross misconduct, the jury heard.

The case continues.