Man imprisoned for country house burglaries

25/03/2011

A 58 year old man from Wakefield was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court today to nine years' imprisonment after pleading guilty to offences connected to the theft of valuable items from country houses in Sussex, Cumbria and Shropshire.

Graham Harkin pleaded guilty to burglaries at Firle Place near Lewes in East Sussex in July 2009 and at Longner Hall near Shrewsbury, Shropshire in August 2009.

At the Firle Place burglary a number of items of porcelain valued at around £1m were stolen. During the police investigation a number of witnesses said that they had seen a man behaving suspiciously the day before the burglary was discovered. CCTV and mobile phone evidence placed Harkin at Firle Place on that day. The stolen porcelain has not yet been recovered.

Glassware, porcelain tableware and ceramics worth approximately £27,000 were stolen during the Longner Hall burglary. Mobile phone data placed him in the area on the day of the burglary, and although Harkin left a false name and street name in the visitor's book, the postcode he wrote in the book was the postcode for his home address in Wakefield. Some of the items were recovered and returned to the owners.

Harkin also pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods after he was arrested by police at Birch Services on the M62 in March 2010 and a valuable clock that had been stolen in a burglary at Levens Hall, Cumbria, the year before was found in the boot of his car.

Harkin had contacted the owners of Levens Hall giving a false name to claim the reward that was being offered for the clock, made by Thomas Tompion and valued at around £200,000. As a result of an operation led by Detective Chief Inspector Geoff Huddleston of Cumbria CID Harkin was arrested with the clock at Birch Services.

After the sentencing Senior Crown Prosecutor, Peter Kelly from CPS Cumbria, said: "Graham Harkin was hoping to make significant profit for himself by targeting valuable items that were on show to the public in country houses. However he was caught out in the end by his own greed when he tried to claim the reward for one of the antiques.

"The prosecution estimates that in only a matter of a few weeks Graham Harkin dealt with well over £1m worth of stolen antiques. Antique thefts such as these often result in items of significant historical interest being lost to public view forever and his convictions and sentence send a clear message that police and prosecutors will take these offences seriously."

Another man, Gary Swindell, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment after being found guilty after trial to handling stolen goods. He was arrested following investigations into the sale of some items from the burglary at Longner Hall.

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