A career criminal was part of a gang who used inside information to steal mobile phones worth £47,000 from a business on a Norwich industrial estate, a court heard.
Glen Appleby, 53, was part of a gang of criminals who smashed their way into the building of Anovo on the Vulcan Road industrial estate to steal the phones, Norwich Crown Court was told.
Jude Durr, prosecuting, said: “This is a high value commercial burglary.”
He said the raid was targeted at the part of the building which housed the phones, which were worth £47,000, and Mr Durr said the raid was captured on CCTV which was used to help track and trace the gang.
He said: “They must have had inside information as to where the phones were located and the point where the wall was to be smashed through to gain ready access to where the phones were.”
He said the raid took place in May 2018 and said that Appleby was later arrested after his DNA was found on gloves discarded at the scene and he was also recognised from the CCTV at the premises.
At the time he was arrested, Appleby was also found with a piece of paper in his phone case with the post code for the Anovo building.
He said there had been a delay in the case coming to court but said this was not down to Appleby.
Mr Durr said Appleby had 18 convictions for 27 offences which included high profile offences of robbery.
Appleby, who appeared over a link from Wormwood Scrubs Prison, had earlier pleaded guilty to the theft from Anovo and was jailed for two years which will run alongside his current sentence of five years which he is serving for an unrelated matter.
Sentencing him, Judge Stephen Holt told Appleby: “You are a career criminal.”
He said Appleby was part of a professional gang who had carried out the commercial burglary at the premises, in Norwich, and said it involved a large amount of money.
However he accepted there had been delays in the case being dealt with and Appleby deserved credit for his guilty plea.
Kim Chiswick, for Appleby, said that the delays in the case were not the fault of Appleby.
She said he had not asked for any pre-sentence report and accepted that he had a long history of criminal convictions.
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