Burglar cut through pipe to steal £14k from store

Michael Bryon from Cannock, was involved in a plot to cut through the pipe used to move cash in pods from tills to a safe at a Sainsbury's store.

Staff discovered that £14,800 was missing after realising 23 cash transport pods sent from tills were empty.

When police arrived at the supermarket, officers found that access to the roof space had been gained by forcing open a vent.

Mr Lindsay Cox, prosecuting, said the pipe had been cut to allow pods to be opened and the contents removed before the pipe was made airtight again using sticky tape.

Mr Cox said: "It was an interesting form of theft."

A sample of DNA recovered from a piece of the tape was later found to match that of Bryon and led to his arrest, the court heard.

Mr Cox told the jury that in 2010 35-year-old Bryon had pleaded guilty to involvement in an almost identical burglary at a Tesco supermarket in Swindon.

On that occasion, despite admitting an offence of burglary, Bryon claimed that he had only acted as a getaway driver. That burglary netted £10,400.

Bryon, of Mosswood Street, Cannock, had denied any involvement in the theft from the Sainsbury's at Moreton Hall, Bury St Edmunds.

However he was jailed for four years after being found guilty by a jury at Ipswich Crown Court.

He had told the jury he was was unable to remember where he had been on the day of the theft, January 11, this year.

While admitting that he had been in possession of sticky tape of the same type as used in the burglary, Bryon said he had not used any at the Sainsbury's store although he did know a number of other people who committed offences of that type.

He was jailed for four years by Judge John Devaux