Man and teen in court after stealing lead from roof of Doncaster stately home
A man and teenager who stole lead from the roof of a historic Grade II listed Doncaster stately home have appeared before court.
Ryan Scott, 31, of Carr Hill, Balby took a teenager - who cannot be named for legal reasons - onto the Hickleton Hall estate on 27 December 2023 to commit crime.
South Yorkshire Police officers on patrol in the area sighted a Ford Transit Van at around 11.30pm, leaving the grounds of the hall.
Officers continued to follow the vehicle, putting plans in place to bring it to a stop.
After six miles, officers moved in and the vehicle went off road in an attempt to evade police in the Bentley area of Doncaster.
Upon stopping the vehicle, Scott who was driving, was quickly detained. The teenager was also arrested after a short foot chase.
Officers carried out a search of the van and found a large quantity of lead in the back.
Staff at Hickleton Hall quickly confirmed large amounts of lead from their roof was missing and matched that found in Scott’s van.
As enquiries progressed, officers reviewed CCTV footage of people in the grounds of the hall around 4pm, tampering with CCTV cameras to avoid their identity being captured.
A short while later, around 10pm, the suspects were seen entering the grounds in darkness to commit their crime.
Failing to set a good example for the youth, Scott had also driven the pair in an uninsured vehicle and without a licence. He was arrested and charged for all offences.
Yesterday (30 August) Scott and the teenager, aged 17, appeared before Doncaster Magistrates’ Court for sentencing after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Scott was sentenced to 20 weeks in prison, suspended for two years. He was also ordered to complete 200 hours of community service, was granted a deprivation order on his van and ordered to pay £520 compensation.
The teenager was given a Youth Offenders Team referral and ordered to pay £150 compensation
First built for a wealthy banker, Godfrey Wentworth, by the famous architect James Paine in 1745, the hall was subsequently home to the Whig politician and Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood, first Viscount Halifax from 1846 to 1885 and then used by the army during the Second World War, by which time it had become home to the then Viscount Halifax, Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, a former Viceroy of India and British Foreign Secretary at the start of World War Two.
It was used by the army as the headquarters of I Corps after the Dunkirk evacuation in May 1940 and was also a girls’ school, before becoming a Sue Ryder care home in the 1960s, closing in 2012 and being put up for sale in 2015.