Two Suffolk men jailed for spate of lockdown burglaries
Two men have been sentenced after admitting burglary offences.
Two men have been given more than four years in prison between them after admitting to stealing more than £40,000 worth of equipment during the first lockdown in 2020.
25 year-old Shane Phillips of New Street in Eye, and Tim Moyle, aged 26 and previously from Anchor Street in Lowestoft, pleaded guilty to the offences at Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday 13th January.
Phillips was given two years and two months, while Moyle got two years.
The burglaries took place between 4th May 2020 and 19th June 2020 at a business called Mowerfix Ltd in Worcestershire, the cricket ground at Ingham in North Norfolk, Walsham-Le-Willows Sports Club, and Bungay and District Sports Club in North Suffolk.
Phillips also pleaded guilty to another burglary in Snape last August.
During the investigation police say the pair engaged with the Op Converter team to secure further offences that were Taken into Consideration, which included further offending as far away as Devon and Nottingham.
Phillips had 58 other offences Taken into Consideration, whild Moyle had 38 TIC'd.
Police say the pair admitted to targeting churches, community centres, sport grounds, and infrequently schools.
Items frequently stolen included gardening tools, lawn mowers, ground maintenance tools, but also food, fuel, power tools, and larger objects like mini diggers and dump trucks.
It's though they stole in total more than £122,000 worth of stuff.
Police say their activity caused a great deal of disruption to businesses and services that impacted further on the local communities, as well as a great financial drain to some agencies who could ill afford to cover the cost of the loss during the hard times of the lockdown.
Investigating officer Ed Vincent of Lowestoft CID said: "I am extremely pleased with the sentence, bearing in mind their guilty pleas and it reflects the seriousness and the prolific nature of the offending and the period of time in which it occurred.
"It was a great piece of team work as well, in particular thanks to our police colleagues as West Mercia and had it not been for their efforts in laying the operational groundwork before their arrest it is strongly believed the pair would have continued in their activities to commit further crimes.
"I should also like to pay tribute to the Op Converter team who travelled considerable distances and worked long days to capture as many offences in the TIC schedule as possible.
"Thanks also need to be expressed to Hammonds of Halesworth who assisted in the recovery and storage of a large quantity of property recovered from the pair and accelerated the returning of a large number items to various victims which we are continuing to identify and return."
DC Barry Simpson from the Op Converter team said: "It is very gratifying that the Op Converter process will have seen some closure for many of their victims they preyed on by the fact they admitted other crimes and enable the return of much of the stolen property."