Thief caught after tracker was installed in fridge

A tracker placed into a refrigerator on a building site led police to the home of a 43-year-old man, a court has heard.

Jamie Bunn, now of no fixed address but then living at the Foreman’s Bridge Caravan Park at Sutton St James, admitted handling the stolen refrigerator when he appeared before magistrates at Boston after a charge of burglary was withdrawn by the prosecution.

Darren Young, prosecuting, said there had been a number of thefts from a building site at Holbeach and the developers had installed tracking devices into equipment at the site.

He said that a tracker inside the refrigerator was triggered at 2.46am on September 2 and it was seen to stop at Bunn’s home at 4.30am where police found it, still boxed.

He said Bunn had 16 previous convictions for 23 offences, nine of which were for dishonesty.

Mitigating, Daven Naghen said Bunn had been looking after the refrigerator for someone else but he had asked no questions so clearly ‘knew there was something dodgy going on’.

He said the result was that he had been kicked out’ of his accommodation and was now living in his car.

He added that Bunn, a plasterer, had had all his tools confiscated by the police for checking as to whether or not they had been stolen so was unable to work.

Bunn was given a 12 month community order and ordered to undertake 20 rehabilitation days.

He was also fined £80 and ordered to pay a total of £95 in court charges.