Man sentenced for £90k Kenilworth jewellery theft
A MAN who denied taking part in a £90,000 break-in at a Kenilworth jewellers despite overwhelming evidence against him was sentenced after finally admitting his involvement.
But despite the huge haul of jewellery that was taken in the raid at Sylvesters Jewellers in Talisman Square in 2010, burglar Stuart Mahers escaped an immediate prison sentence.
Mahers (40) of Anchorway Road, Coventry, had pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to the burglary. But as his trial was about to start, he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for 18 months and ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.
Prosecutor Ian Speed said that at 10.15pm on Sunday August 22, 2010, two masked men forced open a security shutter at the town centre shop and kicked in a glass door panel to gain entry.
Once inside the shop they forced their way into two window displays from where they stole jewellery and watches with a retail value of £90,213.
An eye witness rang police after seeing them leave the jewellers and run from the scene to a car parked nearby.
Officers followed the escape route, and along the way found a glove which forensic tests linked to Mahers, who claimed he had lost it while visiting Kenilworth earlier that weekend.
When he was arrested at his home the police noticed clothes which matched those being worn by one of the burglars and forensic tests later found glass from the shop door embedded in them.
Facial mapping experts also examined a shop CCTV recording which concluded one of the burglars, who had removed his mask while inside, was Mahers.
Mr Speed pointed out that shortly after the raid at the jewellers, Mahers acted as the lookout for a burglary at a shop from where a large quantity of cigarettes was stolen - for which he was given a suspended sentence with unpaid work.
Ben Williams, defending, said that since then Mahers had kept out of trouble and has been holding down a job.
Sentencing Mahers, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones said: “This sort of offence really amounts to serious crime. A sentence of two-and-a-half years would have been easily justified.
“I am, however, minded to take into account that you have demonstrated in the past that you can keep out of trouble and that you can work.
“But this was a very close call.”
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Tuesday 21 May 2013
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