Father and son, 18, are cleared in just 48 minutes of stealing eight bottles of champagne worth £348 from Fortnum & Mason after telling court that paying had ‘slipped both our minds’
- Businessman Douglas Vallender, 53, and his son Jack have been cleared of theft
- The father and son were found not guilty of stealing eight bottles of champagne
- Jack, 18, broke down in tears outside court describing embarrassment of ordeal
Happy: Jack Vellender, pictured outside Southwark Crown Court yesterday, has been cleared of theft
A father and son have been cleared of stealing eight bottles of champagne worth £348 from Fortnum & Mason.
Cornish businessman Douglas Vallender and his 18-year-old son Jack denied swiping the pricey alcohol from the luxurious department store during a trip to the capital last year.
Mr Vallender, 53, who runs a construction company and two coffee shops, maintained his innocence and said they had left the shop in a hurry as his son was ‘stressed’ about filling in a job application.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court in London took 48 minutes to reach unanimous verdicts.
Both defendants breathed a sigh of relief and mouthed ‘Thank you’ as the verdicts were delivered with teenager Jack weeping tears of joy outside the courtroom.
Addressing the jury, judge Michael Howard QC said: ‘You have come to your verdict extremely quickly.
‘Both of them are, of course, entitled to be released immediately.’
Speaking outside the courtroom, Mr Vallender said: ‘We are very grateful that the correct decision was reached and can’t thank our legal team enough. It has caused a lot of hurt and upset to the family.’
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Asked if Fortnum & Mason should apologise, Douglas Vallender said: ‘I think they should, it’s because of them that this has come about.’
A tearful Jack told reporters: ‘I used to love coming to London but now it seems like the only reason I have come up really is because of this.
‘People see it and they just assume the worst.’
‘I think they should apologise’: Cornish businessman Douglas Vallender (pictured arriving at court yesterday) says he believes Fortnum & Mason should say sorry to him
Prosecutor James Cartwright said that it was a ‘thought out and planned theft’ but the Vallenders insisted they had simply forgotten to pay
It was claimed they entered the upmarket store at about 12.15pm and between them smuggled out the box of champers before being stopped in the street.
Prosecutor James Cartwright said that it was a ‘thought out and planned theft’ but the Vallenders insisted they had simply forgotten to pay.
Jack told Southwark Crown Court that he was in a rush to fill out an application for an internship with banking giant JP Morgan.
He said: ‘By sheer accident we walked out the store and we forgot to pay.’
Referring to his son, Mr Vallender said: ‘He was getting in a bit of a flap and I said, ‘okay, okay,’ and we walked straight out of the shop, never batted an eyelid and all the rest of it.’
Douglas and Jack Vallender, St Ives, Cornwall were each cleared of one count of theft
Jack, who lived in Stroud in Gloucestershire with his mother at the time and attended Marling Grammer School, said: ‘JP Morgan is one of the top firms for investment banking. If I could get my foot in the door, that would really help me.
‘If I could get that internship, that would be massive – it was the one thing I wanted to do. I was worried about not having enough time to do the application.’
David Campbell, defending Douglas Vallender, told jurors that the pair admitted walking out of the shop with the bottles but they simply ‘made a mistake’.
‘The fact is that they are human,’ Mr Campbell said.
The court also heard Mr Vallender had spent £260 in a nearby store on three pairs of jeans beforehand.
Douglas Vallender owns Valle Construction and Valdon Developments based in St Ives, Cornwall and also owns two coffee companies, Kwick.Coffee and Exspesso (corr).
Douglas and Jack Vallender, St Ives, Cornwall were each cleared of one count of theft.
Fortnum & Mason has been contacted for comment.
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