Thief replaced stolen jewellery with copies
A quick-fingered sneak thief escaped with jewellery worth thousands of pounds from display cabinets at jewellers by covering up the crime with fake substitutes.
The switch meant the crime was not spotted until CCTV was checked long after the culprit had left the scene, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Jasbinder Bhaker – who had previous convictions for carbon copy offences – used the trick to get away with almost £14,000 worth of gold rings and bracelets from three stores, prosecutor Mr Paul Reid said.
The 33-year-old struck first at Paul Jewellers in West Bromwich High Street. He was left alone at the counter after asking to view a pendant that required the owner to go to the rear of the shop to fetch it on October 12 last year, the court was told.
Bhaker then said he needed to get some money but never returned. Staff later discovered from CCTV that he had taken 10 gold bangles worth £12,000.
On April 25 the thief went to AJ Jewellers in Walsall and swapped a £1,400 necklace from the display for a fake he had brought with him. Then on May 17 – the day after hair stylist
Bhaker had been given a suspended prison sentence by magistrates for similar offences – he switched a £500 ring on display with a dud substitute at the New Horn of Gold shop in Walsall.
Mr Jasvir Mann, defending, said: "His life has been ravaged by an addiction to drugs."
Bhaker, of Stanley Road, Oldbury pleaded guilty to the three thefts and was sent to prison for 18 months by Judge John Wait who said: "You happened upon an apparently successful method of getting high value items out of jewellers shops and have been practising it."
