A wine bar owner who police say used his business to launder the proceeds of a ‘brazen’ £330,000 book theft escaped jail today by the ‘slimmest of margins’.
Christopher Nunn took over the Wine Vaults Bar and Restaurant in Beccles, Suffolk, in 2022 – three years after he began swiping stock from a book printing business where he worked and selling it on Amazon.
But his illicit business model collapsed in 2023 when a customer rang the publishers to ask why the books were so cheap online.
Nunn – who attempted to hide his face when turning up to court for various appearances, using his jacket and even a Scream mask on one occasion – appeared surprised and raised an eyebrow at his wife as he was given a two-year jail term today, suspended for 24 months.
Recorder John Brooke-Smith, who heard the defendant had two children with ‘additional needs’, told him: ‘By the slimmest of margins – given the very high level of the loss to the business – I am prepared to say that if I sent you to prison now, the impact on those children would be disproportionate.’
