JAILED: Serial thief who stole cars and petrol from across Black Country

Jamie Brookes, 27, fitted stolen licence plates to vehicles before targeting garages throughout the region in nine raids last year.

The father-of-three pinched petrol and diesel worth £720 between July and September at stations in Oldbury and Great Bridge as well as Quinton, Great Barr and other places in Birmingham.

Even when Brookes was arrested on suspicion of theft on September 22, the bold bilker went out the very next day to strike again.

He was jailed for 18 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Brookes was in a stolen Citroen worth £2,000 when he and an accomplice drove to NJC Motors in Smethwick to steal an Astra valued at more than £6,000.

He claimed he was carrying out the thefts on someone else's instructions and was being paid each time he did it.

Brookes, from Warley, was also convicted for a further six counts relating to driving without insurance and a licence for which he was disqualified from driving for two years.

He appeared at the sentencing hearing via video-link from HMP Hewell in Worcestershire. He was handed a nine-week prison term for separate petrol theft offences last year.

Judge Amjad Nawaz said it 'beggars belief' that magistrates chose to sentence Brookes for those crimes instead of sending the matter to crown court for all of the offences to be dealt with together.

He added: "When you were arrested you went out the next day and committed the same offence.

"That shows you are somebody who simply will not comply with any order given to you.

"Maybe you can't say no to others unfortunately you will have to grow up and steal yourself.

"If you don't you will serve longer and longer sentences.

"The sheer volume of your offending means there is no other option than an immediate custodial sentence."

Jasuir Mann, defending, said Brookes's main incentive to steal was for his own financial gain adding he had left school without any qualifications and had found it hard to keep down steady employment.

The barrister added: "He is a man easily led by others and by the age of 27 he should have sufficient backbone to say to these people he no longer wants to associate with them.

"The reality is he has given into pressures, but he has also been a willing participant but not a man that instigates things on his own."