A man caught stealing thousands of pounds worth of telecommunications cable has been jailed.
Donald Green, of White Horse Avenue, Halstead, Essex, was caught red handed with more than £3,700 worth of BT cables following an incident near Newmarket on October 27.
The 50-year-old parked his white Ford Transit on a grass verge along the A11 at around 10pm before he was spotted by Suffolk police.
They followed Green before pulling him over on the A1304. He was found to be disqualified from driving and had false number plates on.
A search of the area where the van had originally been parked revealed more than £3,600 worth of BT cables hidden behind a hedge, with more found in the back of Green's van.
Green was jailed for 19 months at Cambridge Crown Court on Tuesday, November 26, after pleading guilty to theft, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.
DC Tom Adams said: "Green was caught red-handed stealing thousands of pounds worth of telecommunications cable, which can cause misery for small villages.
"His sentence reflects how seriously the courts take offending of this nature."
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