A father and son have been locked up for burgling a farmhouse and stealing treasured family antiques.
Scrap dealer Christopher Jackson, 44, and his 18-year-old son Matthew targeted Westfield Sole Farm in Harp Farm Road, Boxley, Maidstone because it had no alarms and CCTV, Maidstone Crown Court heard.
Farmer Langley Beck, who lived there alone, was described by the prosecution as being in his late 30s and “a slightly eccentric individual who lives in a certain amount of dereliction and chaos”.
Mr Beck returned to the farm on June 18 last year and realised he had been burgled. Believing the those responsible would return he lay in wait in an outbuilding, and saw three men arrive in a van the next morning.
He called police, and they arrested the Jacksons. Stolen property was later recovered from the father’s salvage yard in Sheppey.
The Jacksons, of Cliff View Gardens, Leysdown, denied burglary, but were convicted. The father was sentenced to three years, and Matthew will serve nine months in youth custody.