Plane cleaning staff seen stealing booze and cigarettes as secret cameras installed

Aircraft cleaning staff were caught nicking alcohol, cigarettes and even Pringles crisps after security cameras were installed to catch the thieves in the act.

Irish airline Aer Lingus became suspicious after two planes based at Manchester Airport experienced ‘significant stock loss’. Manchester Crown Court heard how bosses took direct action and set up the surveillance system, which caught 10 employees of a company subcontracted to clean the aircraft helping themselves to items.

Manchester Evening News reports the thieves would cut seals open to gain access to their loot, and use tools to break open security seals. Connor Brooks, 28; Jonathan Etchells, 39; Dylan Nelson, 20; Richard Armer, 28; Usman Ghani, 25; Katie Moran, 36; Ciaran Lynch, 31; Mark Hicks, 37; Roman Mahmood, 21; and Shawn Bailey, 52, all admitted theft.

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Prosecuting, Philip Hall said the defendants were all working for a company subcontracted to clean two Aer Lingus planes based at Manchester Airport. The aircraft flew between Manchester and New York. Covert cameras were installed on the aircraft after the airline became aware of ‘significant stock loss’ during May and June 2023, with cigarettes, alcohol and perfumes going missing.

The cameras, in operation over a few days in July and August that year, caught cleaning staff red-handed, breaking into storage containers and trolleys, cutting seals and opening security tags. On July 29, the cameras caught Brooks and Bailey checking the weight of containers to investigate which ones contained items. Brooks said: “Nah, s*** again man.” While Etchells said: “It’s not worth doing.”

Brooks later said: “It’s been a bad day for the last five.” Prosecutors claimed that showed it was not the first day they had stolen from the aircraft. Brooks told Ghani ‘get your clippers’ after noting a container was ‘full of Pringles’. On July 30, Moran joked to Brooks, Etchells and Hicks as they were searching containers, telling them ‘you’re under arrest’.

The footage showed alcohol and sleeves of cigarettes being stolen. Brooks could be seen stuffing miniature bottles of alcohol into a pillow case. The thieves could be heard discussing stealing perfumes, to which Moran and Etchells both said they had ‘loads at home’. Brooks replied: “I want more, or is that too greedy?”

Later, Brooks talked about not getting ‘too greedy’. As Brooks stuffed boxes of perfumes into a pillow case, Nelson told him: “Nice little day today Connor.” He replied ‘I’ve hit it for the last five’, before adding ‘well it’s my third day today’.

On August 1, Armer and another person could be seen using a ‘red axe’ to break the security seal for a container containing three small tubes of Pringles. "He appears to have gone to a lot of effort to steal some crisps,” Mr Hall said. Minutes later, Armer could be heard laughing as he opened the door to a container before someone else took more tubes of Pringles.

“Thieving ba*****s,” he said, referring to colleagues. During the period in which the cameras were installed, €1,290.10 (around £1,112) worth of products were stolen from the two aircraft. The 10 defendants were charged with theft between July 29 and August 4, 2023, the period which the €1,290.10 figure relates to. But the court heard that thefts are believed to have occurred over a longer period, and the wider loss to Aer Lingus was said to be about €200,000 (£172,400).

All 10 were sentenced to 12 month community orders, and ordered to carry out unpaid work. Judge Nicholas Dean KC, the Honorary Recorder of Manchester, said the defendants who had been involved in selling stolen goods would be given higher amounts of unpaid work.

Etchells, Lynch and Armer were ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work, while the other seven were told to complete 80 hours. The judge noted that most of the defendants had previously faced a conspiracy charge, and that at first it seemed to involve ‘organised crime’. But the charge was not proceeded with, and Judge Dean instead described the stealing as ‘a form of casual theft’ which became ‘systematic’.

He said: “It is clear from an overview of the evidence in this case, that really what was happening is that nearly everybody seemed to be at it, and when individuals saw that others were involved in theft, they became involved too. This is serious offending because of the level of trust invested in you.”

Brooks, of Thornsgreen Road, Wythenshawe; Etchells, of Staithes Road, Wythenshawe; Nelson, of Bideford Drive, Wythenshawe; Mahmood, of Broom Lane, Levenshulme; Armer, of Chesham Avenue, Wythenshawe, Ghani, of Langthorne Street, Burnage; Moran, of Plowden Road, Wythenshawe; Lynch, of Austell Road, Wythenshawe; Bailey, of Fountains Road, Stretford; and Hicks, of Staithes Road, Wythenshawe; all pleaded guilty to theft from their employer.