Burglars caught by fish and chip shop camera

The camera at Mr Chips in Bloxwich Road, Walsall, put police in the picture about the identity of the culprit by filming prolific criminal Matthew Walters outside the targeted premises shortly before the break-in.

The 30-year-old was quickly recognised from the footage and was found hiding in a wardrobe at his home in nearby Northumberland Way two hours later, said Mr Edward Soulsby, prosecuting.

Another man seen on the fish and chip shop security film – Adam Mosedale – was also held at the house, where items of jewellery stolen in the raid were discovered hidden in the garden shed.

The next morning, police returned to the address and found more of the stolen haul, including credit cards, in a bedroom, the court heard.

One of the cards had been used within minutes of the theft to buy an Apple iPhone which had been ordered from Tesco Direct by somebody using a mobile phone belonging to a friend of 30-year-old Mosedale.

He had been in the chip shop when the house was burgled by Walters who jumped over a rear wall and broke into the property through a kitchen door while the occupants were out during the evening of September 10, 2015. When arrested he protested: "I did not do anything. I was stood outside the chippy, that's it."

Mr Oliver Woolhouse, defending Mosedale, who had 34 previous convictions involving 66 separate offences – mainly for dishonesty and motoring matters – said: "He is a man who is regularly in and out of custody.

"He has not spent a Christmas outside prison for four years and asks that the sentence he receives for this crime does not result in him spending a fifth in a row away from his family."

Mr Andrew Wilkins for Walters, commented: "He has been in prison on numerous occasions and will die in prison unless he mends his ways. Unfortunately drugs are at the heart of his problems."

Walters, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to the burglary and was jailed for two-and-a-half years, while Mosedale, from Northumberland Avenue, Walsall, admitted handling and received a 12-month prison term.