Parking meter thief escapes jail

A thief caught red-handed with hundreds of pounds in small change stolen from parking meters has escaped jail.

Nikolin Dushi was equipped with a bunch of "sophisticated keys" when he and a friend were stopped by police the early hours of January 9 near a meter in Ealing.

Dushi, a 22-year-old Kosovan refugee, had £27 in coins on him at the time. His friend had £47, and a search of their car revealed another £627 snatched from parking meters around London.

The cash was confiscated after Dushi, of Bond St, Ealing, was sentenced at Isleworth Crown last Friday (OCT 24). He admitted theft and going equipped for theft, and was given a community order for 18 months, told to do 180 hours' unpaid work and fined £200.

Sentencing him, Judge Jonathan Lowen said: "Your explanation for being caught in this situation was that you were brought into it by another man. But after you were arrested and bailed you committed a similar offence in February. That really shows what your attitude is to this sort of offending".

The other offender denied the charges and was found guilty by a jury and jailed for eight months.
Defending, Jeremy Chipperfield said Dushi came to this country as a refugee at the age of 15 and had worked hard, but was made redundant and ran out of cash when he could not get another job. His friend led him into a world of crime, he said, but Dushi had now found work as a carpenter.

The case comes two weeks after murderer Herland Billali was jailed for a minimum of 34 years for a gangland slaying relating to a £1.2m parking meter racket.

Gunman Bilalli tracked a group of Kosovan and Albanian men to a Park Royal club and opened fire as they were playing cards, killing 22-year-old Prel Marku and wounding several others in the attack on October 14, 2006.

Bilalli, 26, and fellow gunman Kujtim Spahiu, 35, carried out the revenge attack following claims the victims were operating on their patch. The men were part of an large network of Eastern European criminals responsible for thefts from parking meters across the capital.