A 38-year-old man has been forced to pay back more than £13,000 after he admitted to stealing numerous pieces of equipment at a business in Denham.

David Ian Jones, of Chalfont Park, was ordered to re-pay his victim £13,442.58, given a 16-month prison sentence suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service.

He pleaded guilty to one count of theft by an employee at an earlier hearing at High Wycombe Magistrates Court on December 1 2023, and was sentenced at Aylesbury Crown Court on Wednesday, October 2, 2024.

This is in relation to several incidents between May 9, 2021, and July 16, 2022, where Jones abused the trust of his employer and stole numerous items including equestrian equipment worth over £13,000.

Investigating officer PC George Ward, of the Incident & Crime Response Team, said: “Jones pleaded guilty early on in this case and has been sentenced accordingly, he will now have the opportunity to reflect on his actions and have to pay the full value of the items he stole.

“His actions were simply motivated by his greed.

“This was a lengthy and complex investigation, which involved the gathering of a large amounts of evidence and material to present to the court for the strongest possible case, which led to Jones pleading guilty.

“I would like to thank the victim for their overwhelming support throughout this investigation which involved one of their employees sadly abusing their position of trust within the business for a protracted period of time.

“Thames Valley Police will always thoroughly investigate thefts and where the evidence is available we will always seek to bring offenders before the courts.”