A BURGLAR who stole seven shotguns from a shop in Colchester hid the weapons in a bush. 

Violent Dean Pitts, 27, stole seven shotguns during a raid at a firearms dealership in Colchester.

But he was snared after he left his mobile phone at the scene of the crime.

Pitts stormed out of a hearing at Liverpool Crown Court, where he was to be sentenced for the burglary and a campaign of domestic abuse carried out against a former partner.

CCTV showed Pitts at gun shop KD Radcliffe, in Berechurch Hall Road, Colchester, on July 2, 2019.

He broke in overnight, forcing entry using a hammer and screwdriver before taking seven Beretta hunting shotguns worth £1,000 each.

But the burglar left his phone inside after making off from the scene, having been using it as a torch.

The firearms were found hidden in bushes near to the store by a member of the public two months later.

Pitts, of no fixed address, admitted kidnapping, burglary, two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, engaging in coercive or controlling behaviour, two charges of assault and two of criminal damage during an earlier hearing.

He initially refused to attend his sentencing, but was then ordered to be brought before the court via video link.

However, the defendant stormed out of the booth shortly after the prosecution began detailing his catalogue of abuse.

The court heard the couple’s relationship began in May last year, but Pitts increasingly became verbally and physically abusive.

He sought to isolate his partner from her loved ones and deleted the male friends on her social media profiles.

On one occasion in July last year, the court was told he punched her in the side at a Travelodge – causing her to collapse and leaving her struggling to breathe.

On another, he dragged her out of an off-licence by her hair before bundling her into a car.

Sentencing him to five years and ten months in prison, Judge David Swinnerton said: “I’ve asked the rhetorical question, what do you do when you have stolen shotguns? An obvious answer is, make money.”

Turning to the kidnapping, he added: “It was a one-sided relationship where he did what he wanted and practically enslaved her – he treated her as his to do with what he wanted.”