Jewellery worth £29K stolen 'in two minutes'

A man who stole more than £29,000 worth of items in just two minutes from a jewellers before going on to raid other shops has been jailed.

Joe Ross, 36, of Manor Close, Little Wilbraham, near Cambridge, smashed his way inside Chloe's Jewellers in St Ives using a hammer at 03:30 BST on 30 April, before breaking into and stealing £450 from Stow-Cum-Quy post office 24 hours later.

A few hours later, he stole jars of coffee from Burwell Co-op and then on 3 May he attempted - but failed - to break into another post office in the village.

At Peterborough Crown Court on Wednesday he was sentenced to 16 months in prison after pleading guilty to the offences.

Ross admitted to two counts of burglary, one count of theft from a shop and one count of attempted burglary.

According to police, he had been released from prison earlier this year for other crimes.

He was also ordered to pay £29,555 in compensation to Chloe's Jewellers, £950 to Stow-Cum-Quy post office and £2,205.69 to Burwell post office.

Det Con Samuel Andrews described Ross as a "prolific criminal" who caused "significant distress and financial loss" across Cambridgeshire.

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