Three years in prison for Atherstone burglar found with stolen tools

He'd previously received a two-year suspended sentence for theft.

Author: Amy ShephardPublished 26th Jul 2024
Last updated 26th Jul 2024

A Mancetter man has been sent to prison for three years - after he was found to have taken tools and a piggy bank from two separate properties.

4\3 year old Jamie Crutchley has been sentenced to three years in prison for burglary and handling stolen goods.

He will also be required to pay £228 as a victims’ surcharge.

On 22 February 2024, officers received a report that a property on Station Street in Atherstone had been entered and tools and an Antler bag with the approximate value of £1,000 had been removed.

Investigation by the Atherstone Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) found CCTV showing Crutchley, along with a female accomplice, attending the address on 17 and 20 of February.

Crutchley was recognised in the footage by one of the SNT officers.

The CCTV footage clearly showed Crutchley leaving the premises with a toolbox and bag on 17 February, and with what appeared to be a box of scrap materials on 20 February.

Officers from the Serious Organised and Acquisitive Crime team attended Crutchley’s address, where Crutchley was found along with the bag from Station Street.

Crutchley claimed he had fished the items out of a skip, and refuted being involved in burglaries anymore.

On 16 March at 6:10pm, CCTV footage showed Crutchley pull up outside of a property in Baddesley Ensor in a car, walk down the driveway to the victim’s house, and disappear from view.

Between this time and 6:18pm, Crutchley can be seen going back and forth between the car and the house with a female accomplice.

The car then drives away. The owner returned home to find that she was missing a yellow piggybank containing £30.

On 20 March, Crutchley was arrested. He was found with a bag full of lots of loose change – consistent with what would have been inside the missing piggybank.

He was identified by a witness who said they had seen Crutchley fidgeting with a yellow piggybank, shaking it and attempting to get into it.

Jamie Crutchley was sentenced in Coventry Crown Court on 16 July 2024. He had previously received a two-year suspended sentence for theft.

Inspector Gibbons from the Atherstone Safer Neighbourhood Team said “Crutchley was already on thin ice with a suspended sentence for theft hanging over him.

“It seemed unlikely to us that the owner of expensive tools and bags would leave them in a skip for Crutchley to take.

“We hope after three years in prison that Crutchley, like the piggybank, will have the capacity for change.”

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