- Police found £32,000 cash and 12,000 cigarettes at thieves' homes
- Thefts from luggage at Luton Airport fell by 77% after pair were caught
It's something many air travellers have long suspected was happening when their luggage was out of sight.
Now here is the proof that once your bags are checked in at the airport, there’s no telling whose hands it may fall into.
Anthony Currant, 65, and Abul Hussain, 30, were captured by covert police cameras over a six-week period helping themselves to travellers’ belongings worth thousands of pounds at Luton Airport.
Red handed: Surveillance cameras caught Currant and Hussain stealing items from passengers' bags at Luton Airport
The footage showed the cleaners patting bags to identify possessions such as cartons of tobacco, MP3 players or jewellery packed inside before pocketing the contents and closing the bags.
Bedfordshire Police are not sure how much the thieves stole prior to their investigation. But since the thieves were arrested on February 3, thefts have fallen by 77 per cent from 163 reported in February-June 2009 to 36 in the same period this year.
An airport insider said: ‘What these two were caught doing was probably the tip of the iceberg. Lots of people don’t report a missing carton of cigarettes because it’s not worth the bother or think they’ve left their iPod somewhere.’
Officers launched their sting operation after passengers reported a huge amount of valuables going missing from their checked-in luggage. Cameras were installed at the airport on December 8 and remained there until January 21.
Theft: The pair stole cash, cigarettes, tobacco and electrical items from bags after diverting them from the baggage carousel
They revealed the cleaners had been diverting bags from arrivals into another area where they were hidden from the view of other staff.
Luggage was then sent back out on to the arrivals carousel where passengers would walk away, usually not realising what had been stolen until they unpacked at home. When police raided Currant’s home in Luton, they found £32,000 in cash, 12,000 cigarettes and 66 packs of tobacco.
Hussain’s home in the town was also filled with stolen goods, including 4,800 cigarettes, 144 packs of tobacco, electrical items, jewellery and cash.
Haul: Mark Griffiths, Property Officer at Luton Police Station, shows off some of the seized items from the cleaners
Currant, who had been selling cigarettes and tobacco to co-workers, was jailed for six months at Luton Crown Court on Friday, while Hussain received three months last month. Both pleaded guilty to theft.
Luton is Britain’s fifth busiest airport. An average of 700,000 passengers pass through it between February and June each year and the official theft rate is usually 0.023 per cent – around one per 4,300 pieces of luggage.
A Bedfordshire Police spokesman said yesterday: ‘As a lot of people do not report stolen goods from their baggage it is impossible to know how much was stolen.
However, the fact that crime has fallen by 77 per cent since their arrest suggests they were responsible for a large amount of thefts.’
Interserve, the firm which was contracted to provide the cleaners, yesterday said the incident was a ‘police matter’.
A spokesman added: ‘The two gentlemen concerned no longer work for Interserve. Their employment was terminated when the thefts came to light.’
An airport spokesman added: ‘London Luton Airport notes the court’s decision and is pleased that the matter has been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.’
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