A man was arrested over a £21,000 burglary when he left his watch at the scene.

Stephen Byrne's black-faced watch was discovered on the floor in front of a safe that had been forced open at the Stanway Post Office in Colchester.

A DNA check matched 45-year-old Byrne but he told a court he had no idea how the watch had got there.

And a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court also heard how Byrne was stopped by police cycling away from a firm in Braintree with a burglar's kit on the day he was committed for trial on the burglary charge.

Byrne, of Marlowe Close, Braintree, had denied the burglary but was convicted after a trial. He admitted another charge of going equipped for burglary.

Judge Peter Dedman jailed him for a total of six years.

"You made enough from the post office burglary to be commensurate with the national average wage," Judge Dedman said.

"That's why people like you take this course of offending. It's very lucrative but people who run the risk of high rewards must face the penalty when they are detected," the judge added.

The court heard a grocery shop and the post office were broken into between March 7 and 8 last year. Windows at the back were broken and bars levered off.

At the post office, a cashbox and safe were forced open and £18,693 in cash and £2,650 worth of stock including phone cards and electricity books were stolen.

In evidence, Byrne claimed he had left the watch and other items at his former partner's home when he moved out.

The court also heard that Byrne was committed for trial on the burglary on February 21 this year when he was stopped by police riding away from business premises in Braintree.

He was wearing a hat, gloves and a scarf and when police searched him, they found a torch, a pair of pliers, a radio scanner and a screwdriver.

Matthew Pardoe, mitigating, said Byrne had a very bad record but there had been a reduction in his offending in the past few years.

Published Wednesday, June 18, 2003

Brought to you by the Evening Gazette