A MAN who received thousands of pounds worth of jewellery stolen from ten house burglaries in the Coleford area, was jailed for three years two months last week.
Didzis Misins, 30, committed one Coleford burglary himself back in 2010, but most of his offending was as a ’fence’ last year and early this year, Gloucester Crown Court was told.
He sold stolen jewellery to Cash Convertors in Gloucester, to a city centre jeweller and to the British Gold Refinery as well as to other pawnbrokers, said prosecutor Simon Dent - but he never got round to selling all the loot, which was found hidden at his home in Sunnybank, Coleford, when he was arrested.
Misins, Sunnybank, Coleford, pleaded guilty to seven offences of fraud, one of burglary and nine of handling goods between May 2010 and February 22 this year.
Mr Dent said the fraud charges related to Misins selling stolen goods under the pretence that they were legally his and told the court that although none of the jewellery stolen in the series of raids was of great financial value, much of it was of huge sentimental value to the rightful owners.
Judge Michael Cullum in passing sentence, told Misins he was a ’professional handler of stolen goods.’
"You had significant amounts of jewellery from a series of burglaries in your house," he said.
"You have not revealed how they came to you or who brought them but you were selling them at a variety of places."
At the end of 2015 into the first three months of this year there was an unprecedented amount of thefts from homes right across the Forest of Dean.
And following an appeal by local police, pictures of the items of jewellery recovered at Misins’ home during their investigations were published in The Forester, many of the rightful owners came forward and claimed their items of jewellery.
Inspector Sara Sleeman said: "The police would like to thank members of the community who came forward with information with regards to this case.
“It has led to the offender, Misins, receiving a three-year jail sentence.
“Gloucestershire Police and in particular PC Leanne Sterry have worked tirelessly in order to identify victims and to reunite them with their belongings.
“We recognise that burglary has an emotional impact on victims, as well as financial loss. We would like to reassure members of the wider Coleford community that we will continue to work with them in order to bring offenders to justice.”