An Australian man has been charged with stealing signed guitars of music enthusiast Mery French. Austen Sheffield, 50, stole 14 of the 81-year-old French’s guitars in August.
The guitars, which were autographed by music legends such as The Eagles, Chubby Checker, John Mellencamp and Jimmy Barnes, were stolen from French’s house in Brisbane. Detectives recovered the instruments on September 15, but Sheffield had already erased five signatures from the guitars including those of Checker and Mellencamp.
The music enthusiast told reporters on Monday that he would spend the next few days cleaning the guitars and finding a more protected venue to store them. The guitars are valued at an estimated $27,000.
Sheffield appeared in Wynnum magistrate’s court in Brisbane yesterday and was formally charged with entering a premises to commit an indictable offence and an unrelated charge of possessing tainted property. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison.
