A former Rosyth Dockyard worker has admitted to stealing metal and hull valves intended for the Royal Navy’s HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier, later selling them for scrap.
As first reported by the Dunfermline Press, Jamie Aird, 29, of Forest Place, Townhill, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, where he pled guilty to stealing the parts between December 1, 2022, and March 20, 2023.
According to the Dunfermline Press, “The theft of metal and valves took place over a period of almost four months and earned Jamie Aird more than £6000 from a scrap dealer.” Aird, a former apprentice pipefitter, had security access to Building 317 at Babcock International’s Rosyth Dockyard, where the thefts occurred.
“There were various thefts reported over a period of time including metal piping going missing,” the Dunfermline Press reported. The investigation led to Aird after security records showed “the times of his visits were considered unusual including when he was off sick.”
Aird later resigned after being interviewed and “was unable to offer any acceptable explanation” for his access records. Further inquiries revealed that “Aird had received £6275 paid into his bank account by a scrap metal company.”
Why was HMS Prince of Wales in Rosyth?
HMS Prince of Wales arrived at Rosyth for repairs following a major mechanical failure in 2022. The aircraft carrier had set sail from HMNB Portsmouth on 27 August 2022 for a series of training exercises with the US Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, and United States Marine Corps. The ship was also scheduled to host the Atlantic Future Forum in New York.
However, just two days into its deployment, the carrier suffered a serious propulsion issue while operating off the UK’s south coast. The problem was traced to a failed external coupling, which connects the outer propeller shaft to the drive system. Rear Admiral Steve Moorhouse, Director of Force Generation, later confirmed that the damage was on the shaft, propeller, and rudder.
As a result, Prince of Wales was forced to anchor in the Solent before being moved to Rosyth for repairs, arriving on 12 October 2022. The ship remained in dry dock for an extended period, with initial estimates suggesting it would return to Portsmouth by spring 2023.
After months of work, the carrier completed repairs and returned to sea for trials on 21 July 2023.
£6k of scrap is a lot of scrap steel. Even high grade.
Bit of an idiot taking valves which would be inventoried….the piping, depending on grade, might be more laxly controlled….might be….
In the end he got greedy and was found out and rightly punished for the crime.
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Do you steal metal?
It is the only way that I can think that Fay earns what she claims she does?
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Isn’t that Treason?
No, it is just plain theft!
Treason is really actions against the Crown.
The Treason Act has been updated since….
Not these days and not then either. The offence of Arson in a Royal Dockyard. Was Treason 1772 to 1971.
Shameful. The last time I heard of anything like this it was a news item about sometime in the Russian navy. That’s a bad sign.
It always went on.
People were just more subtle and security was better.
When RN had dockyards and workshops ‘homers’ were a winked at thing.
Stealing scrap was viewed as being very low.
Nicking things like hull valves was a total no-no but you have to have had a stores man in on it as well as you couldn’t generally enter stores yourself.
Yes.
I guess I’m overly idealistic that a worker building a RN ship might somehow act differently to someone constructing a regular ship.
One difference at least; Aird was prosecuted and taken to court for stealing, and will presumably face a prison sentence.
In the Russian Navy, stealing is just par for the course and rampant across all ranks.
He would have needed a big bag to get all of the ship into
1SL to subordinate: Who stole my damned carrier while it should have been in drydock last night?!? 😉
So who stole all the F35’s ?
If the guy got £6k scrap just imagine the replacement cost ? Scrap dealers are not generous, 20x – 30x perhaps ? Just as well the law changed regarding scrap dealer payments, the BACS nailed him. All we need now is a government with balls to sort out fly tipping and the ever growing litter problem. If we didn’t have to pay people to pick up McDonalds litter our pensioners might have been warm this winter !
The litter problem is caused the cartel that controls the ‘recycling chain’.
Some very, very rich people and companies work together to profiteer in lockstep.
It isn’t ’the landfill tax’ that is the issue…..
I could tell you a lot about that. They are as corrupt as hell
I can see that from where I sit – it is very obvious!
Waste and recycling always was a bent game but now…..it isn’t a get rich quick….it is a get unbelievably rich very very quickly gig.
And I don’t think that money changes hands in the UK either…..
Pleaded not pled.
He has just got in early, both the useless heaps will be scrap soon ! – About as much use as their namesakes ,
I guess you don’t know who these Carriers are named after then ?
Ming by name, Mong by nature
2 days into Westland 22 is optimistic, the shaft snapped while the ship was still at procedure alpha! Hadn’t even got past Southsea.
Interesting that it damaged the rudder – must have been a pretty wild moment when it let go!
Again. This supposed to be a controlled and regulated business. Ok, someone turning up at the local scrapped in a vw golf with a washing machine in the back is one thing, but valves or fresh painted red oxide section on the back of a scrappy old van is another. Scrapyards have even had scrap metal nicked from themselves and sold back to them! Th is business needs regulation with scrap not leaving the Country , as it is a natural resource and has far higher value as a semi finished product. Selling scrap abroad is a black export. The government say one thing but act (or none act) another way. The last thirty years, we have had governments that do not act in the British, Brittonic, Briton’s interest. Always listen to what government say and look at what they actually do.
Shipyard fitter steals metals and takes payment from a scrappy. Not the brightest is he?
It amazes me that so many criminals get caught because they believe they wouldn’t get caught when their error was so obvious to the rest of us.
How the hell do you manage to walk through a main gate, with a prop-shaft under your arm? Seriously though, if it’s shiny and can earn a few extra quid, there will always be someone out for themselves on the take.
I cannot help but wonder if someone else (on the gate?) was involved as well.
Carried out in a carrier bag.
Unbelievable.