A MAN has been jailed for a year after stealing jewellery belonging to his mum and his sister and selling it to a pawn shop.

Robert James Rawlinson, of Wallace Street, was due to appear at South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old’s case was adjourned to the following day where he pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and two counts of fraud.

The court heard that between January and July of this year the defendant stole a number of items of jewellery from his mum Susan’s house where he was living at that time.

In total he took eight pieces of jewellery which were estimated to be worth a total of £2,600.

During the same period he also stole five pieces of jewellery from his sister Victoria’s house where he occasionally stopped.

Those items were worth a total of £1,045.

The court heard that after stealing the jewellery Rawlinson visited Ramsden’s Financial Ltd in Portland Walk and Cash Generator in Dalton Road to sell the items.

He received £1,045 from Ramsden’s Financial and £195 from Cash Generator.

For the theft of his mother’s jewellery he was jailed for 26 weeks to run consecutively to a 20-week jail sentence for the theft of his sister’s jewellery.

For the fraud offences, in selling items he claimed to be his property to the pawn shops, he was given an additional, 26-week concurrent sentence for the sale of jewellery to Ramsden’s Financial and a five-week concurrent sentence for the sale of items to Cash Generator.

Rawlinson was also ordered to pay £195 in compensation to Cash Generator and £1,501 in compensation to Ramsden’s Financial.

Magistrates described his offences as a 'significant breach of trust' and said a custodial sentence was necessary given that he had committed his crimes while subject to a community order.