Marlborough garage raider is sent back to jail (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Marlborough garage raider is sent back to jail

4:13pm Tuesday 9th October 2012 in News By Staff reporter

A burglar who plundered thousands of pounds of fishing tackle from a lock up garage in Chiminage Close, Marlborough has been jailed for 16 months.

Harley Webb was on early release from a three-and-a-half year prison term for robbery when he took the gear and hid it in his father's garage across the road.

As a result the 23-year-old has been returned to serve the remainder of the sentence meaning he is unlikely to do any extra time for the break in.

Webb had initially pleaded not guilty to carrying out the offence and then asking his father to take the rap on his behalf when he appeared at Swindon crown court.

But minutes after the case was put off for trial he asked to be brought back into court so he could change his plea.

After admitting the break in prosecutors said they would drop the charge of perverting the course of justice relating to the alleged phone call.

Claire Marlow, for the Crown, told how the garage in Chiminage Close, Marlborough, was broken into on Friday July 8 or the following day.

She said the police received a tip off telling them the £3,000 worth of angling kit would be found across the road in the garage owned by Webb's dad.

Officers spoke to the defendant's father and when they looked inside his lock up they found the stolen items.

When he was questioned his son denied he had taken the items it had been alleged he phoned his dad to ask him to take responsibility for the break in.

Webb, of Croft Road, Swindon, pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary.

The court heard that he was jailed for 42 months in December 2010 after admitting taking part in a robbery.

He was freed on early release in February this year and was holding down two jobs in Swindon at the time of the offence.

Mark Ashley, defending, said his client had managed to go straight following his release but made a stupid mistake in taking the gear.

He said he enjoyed going fishing with his father and seeing the tackle in the garage decided to steal it to use himself.

As a result of the offence he had been returned to prison for breaching his licence and will now not be released until August next year.

Jailing him Judge Euan Ambrose said: "The items you stole were of significant value to the victim both in terms of cumulative value but also that they were property carefully accumulated by him over many years.

"Planning was involved: you had been seen acting suspiciously by the garage a few days earlier. You had seen what was in the garage and you made plans to steal what was in it."