A burglar who stole more than £2,000 of perfumes from a prominent York fragrance shop has been jailed for 18 months.
Prolific thief Callum Ellerby, 25, raided The Fragrance Shop in York city centre in October 2023, stealing over £2,160 of perfumes after smashing two large glass panels in the front door, causing “extensive” damage, York Crown Court heard.
Just over a month later, following a break-in at a property under renovation in Rawdon Avenue, York, Ellerby was found with £3,130 of power tools.
Despite being caught red-handed shortly after the raid, he denied being the burglar but couldn’t wriggle out of handling the stolen tools – as he had tried to sell them to the very same contractors who were carrying out work on the victim’s property.
Ellerby, of Rawdon Avenue, ultimately admitted burgling the perfumery in Parliament Street and handling the stolen tools. The prosecution accepted his not-guilty plea to the burglary which was allowed to lie on court file.
He appeared for sentence yesterday (Friday) via video link after being remanded in custody.
Prosecutor Louise Pryke said that Ellerby had broken into The Fragrance Shop overnight on 10 October by smashing “very large” glass panels, damaging the glass doors “beyond repair”.
He then took “numerous” fragrance boxes from behind the counter and from shelves. None of the perfume goods were ever recovered.
He was identified and brought in for questioning a week later when he was released on bail.
‘A risk to the public’
But a month later, at about 3am on 15 November, he turned up at the property in Rawdon Avenue with another individual.
A paving slab was thrown through the patio doors, causing £1,500 damage, and “numerous” power tools were stolen from inside the property including a Makita drill and saw worth a total £3,130.
Ellerby then “foolishly” tried to sell the stolen items to the contractors carrying out work at the property on the same day of the burglary. They informed police who came to arrest him again.
This time he ran away while being arrested but officers found him at his home and arrested him a second time. He was brought in for questioning but exercised his right to silence again.
Ellerby had 13 previous convictions for 25 offences including shoplifting and criminal damage.
In November last year, just six days before the power-tools burglary which he denied, Ellerby was given a 12-month community order for two shoplifting offences.
Four days after that sentence, he received an 18-week suspended prison sentence for five more shop thefts at the Co-op stores on Hull Road and Tang Hall Lane, where he stole alcohol worth £733.
One of those offences was committed on the same day that Ellerby received the community order and walked free from court. The other two were committed the day after the order was imposed.
Despite Ellerby’s entrenched stealing habit, defence barrister Lily Wildman said he was capable of rehabilitation in the community again, but judge Simon Hickey summarily rejected this as “optimistic”.
He told Ellerby: “You are clearly a risk to the public and you’ve got a dreadful record of complying with court orders.”
He said that for invading a prominent shop in the heart of York’s shopping district, breaching three separate court orders and stealing high-value power tools, “putting that working man at great inconvenience”, it had to be an immediate prison sentence.
Ellerby will only serve half of the 18-month jail sentence – minus the time he had spent on remand – behind bars before being released on prison licence.