Pair jailed for stealing £57,000 worth of phones in Cumbria
They'll spend over eight years in jail combined.
TWO smash-and-grab burglars who forced their way into electrical shops in Carlisle and Workington, before stealing £57,000 worth of mobile phones and other items, have been handed jail terms totalling more than eight-and-a-half years.
Stewart Walton, 43, and 40-year-old accomplice Liam Brogden travelled from the West Yorkshire area in a Fiat van fitted with false number plates before committing their crimes in the dead of night last summer.
Carlisle Crown Court heard the duo parked up the van away from their intended shop targets, before cycling to them on electric bikes.
CCTV footage captured the pair on 23rd July last year carrying a heavy drain cover, metal security fence base and a stone before breaking the window of Carlisle’s CEX store on Scotch Street.
Once inside, they snatched mobile phones valued at £27,000 before fleeing the premises.
Walton and Brogden were back in Cumbria three nights later, on 26th July, when a car jack was used in an attempt to force shutters on the CEX shop on Pow Street in Workington. The intruders succeeded only in moving the shutters 30 inches and, the court heard, it was presumed that access was gained via a side window.
Walton and Brogden made off with £30,000 worth of goods which included mobile phones, laptops, iPads and a keyboard.
Roadside cameras caught the pair making their way back to the Bradford area after both raids. Nether the loot nor their van was ever recovered.
Father-of-five Walton, of Percy Street, Keighley, and Brogden, also a dad, of Dawson Mount, Bradford, were brought to court and both admitted two commercial burglary charges.
They were described by the prosecutor, during their sentencing hearing this morning (wed), as “professional burglars”.
Brogden was said by his barrister to be “extremely remorseful”, recognising the impact his offending was having on immediate family members.
Career burglar Walton, said his lawyer, was keen to put his offending behind him, as he had for a period in the past before relapsing.
Walton was given a five-year prison sentence, while Brogden received a term of three years seven months.
“This is a planned escapade, covering two premises over a matter of three days,” said Judge Michael Fanning as he passed sentence.
“Each burglary required a high degree of planning and significant organisation.”