Pawned photography equipment worth £10,000 found on eBay traced back to Pudsey house burglary
Photography equipment pawned at a shop Bradford and then found for sale on eBay was traced to a house break-in.
Nicholas Stones admitted a charge of handling stolen goods after he was captured on CCTV flogging the equipment, worth around £10,000, at a fraction of its value.
The camera and lenses were taken after burglars burnt off the lock from a back door of a property on Weavers Row in Pudsey on October 27 last year.
The occupier was asleep upstairs at the time, Leeds Crown Court heard. However, the victim spotted what they thought was their equipment for sale on eBay days later and informed the police.
Officers attended the eBay account holder’s home and it was confirmed to be some of the missing equipment. The man had bought it from a pawn shop in Bradford for around £4,000.
Officers then attended the shop and checked the CCTV footage. Stones was identified, having received £1,100 for the equipment in cash. He was arrested a short time later.
The 24-year-old, of Crossdale Avenue, Bradford, denied burglary, but admitted handling stolen goods, which was accepted by the Crown.
A probation report found that Stones had been in debt to the tune of £3,000 and if he sold the camera equipment, it would knock £500 from the amount owed.
He has four previous convictions for eight offences, including burglary, theft and battery.
Mitigating, Ella Embleton said that Stones had been progressing in prison, and a letter written by a prison officer on his behalf suggested he was “engaging well” and was going “above and beyond to help others”.
Judge Anesh Pema told Stones he “could have no argument” if he jailed him, but opted to give him a 21-week sentence, suspended for 24 months.
He gave him 100 hours of unpaid work, ordered him to enrol on the Thinking Skills probation course and gave him 15 rehabilitations days.