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The great Creme Egg robbery
It had everything a good heist story needs: an angle grinder, a stolen lorry cab, a motorway and nearly 200,000 chocolate eggs. It also had a very sticky ending for the thief.
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Most chocolate thefts involve a pocket and a nervous look over the shoulder. The great Creme Egg robbery of 2023 needed a lorry.
A night in Telford
On 11 February 2023, a man used a metal grinder to break into an industrial unit in Stafford Park, Telford. Inside was a lorry trailer owned by a haulage firm, SW Logistics, loaded with close to 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs belonging to Magna Specialist Confectioners. The court later heard the chocolate was worth more than £31,000.
He had come prepared. The tractor unit he hooked up to the trailer, the cab part of the lorry, had itself been stolen in Yorkshire the previous October. He drove off with the trailer and its very seasonal cargo.
The end of the road
The getaway did not get far. The stolen load was driven onto the northbound M42, and near junction 11 the driver gave himself up, walking towards police with his hands up.
The man, 32 year old Joby Pool, pleaded guilty to stealing the trailer, stealing its contents and criminal damage to a chain lock. In July 2023 he was jailed at Shrewsbury Crown Court for 18 months, half to be served in prison and half on licence. Newspapers could not resist calling him the Easter Bunny thief.
Why chocolate is a target
It sounds like a joke, but thefts like this are a real problem for the sweet trade. A trailer of chocolate is worth tens of thousands of pounds, it has no serial numbers, and it can be sold on quickly and eaten before anyone asks questions. As a supply chain manager told the Macclesfield Express after a failed raid on two trailers of sweets in 2009, you cannot track sweets like TVs or mobile phones.
It was not even the biggest chocolate job of recent years. In 2026 a lorry carrying about 12 tonnes of KitKats vanished somewhere between Italy and Poland: read about the twelve tonne KitKat theft, and more in our round up of famous sweet thefts from lorries.
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For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Questions and answers
How was the Creme Egg thief caught?
The stolen load was driven onto the northbound M42, where he surrendered near junction 11 by walking towards police with his hands up.
What was the Creme Egg thief charged with?
He pleaded guilty to stealing the lorry trailer, stealing the chocolate inside it and criminal damage to a chain lock.
Sources
Keep reading
- Stories, heists and recordsFamous sweet thefts from lorriesFrom 200,000 Creme Eggs on the M42 to 12 tonnes of KitKats lost in Europe, the biggest sweet and chocolate thefts, with the facts.
- Stories, heists and recordsThe twelve tonne KitKat theftIn March 2026 a lorry carrying about 12 tonnes of KitKats, 413,793 bars, disappeared on its way from Italy to Poland.
- Stories, heists and recordsThe Nutella heistIn April 2013 thieves stole about 5 tonnes of Nutella from a parked trailer in Bad Hersfeld, Germany. The spread was worth about €16,000.
- Stories, heists and recordsThe great maple syrup heistIn 2011 and 2012 thieves stole nearly 3,000 tonnes of maple syrup worth C$18.7 million from a Quebec reserve, swapping it for water.
- Stories, heists and recordsThe Beatles and the Jelly BabiesIn 1963 George Harrison let slip that he liked Jelly Babies, and fans pelted the Beatles with them. In America they threw hard jelly beans instead.
- Stories, heists and recordsDoctor Who and his Jelly BabiesThe Doctor first offered a jelly baby in 1968. Patrick Troughton started it, Tom Baker made it a trademark, and in 1996 Paul McGann offered one too.