A REPEAT thief has been jailed after officers connected him to a series of crimes in Barnsley.
Ian McAffrey, 37, was arrested and charged with burglary on 17 April, following an incident which saw him a raid a shed in Dodworth on 25 March.
He pleaded guilty and was handed a four-month suspended sentence, but at the time of his arrest, officers found a pushbike in his car which they suspected was stolen – officers were able to reunite the bike with its rightful owner following a successful social media appeal.
Just as officers confirmed that the pushbike was stolen, another theft took place on 25 April, this time of an e-bike worth £3,500. The bike had been fitted with a tracker which located it to McAffrey’s address.
Officers were also able to recover this bike and return it to its owner, with McAffrey later arrested and charged with burglary and theft of a pedal cycle.
McAffrey, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to both offences and was sentenced to a total of six months in prison at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
Detective Constable Peter Naivalurua said: “I am glad that McAffrey’s crimes have caught up with him and he has been jailed.
“Our officers were able to bring him to justice by pursuing a suspected theft following his initial arrest, and also succeeded in seeing the stolen property returned to its original owners.”
