A MAN involved in the high value theft of copper cable and other metals from a dairy products cold storage area was jailed for a total of 27 months.

Andrew Swinney was among intruders at the Eden Farm site on Peterlee’s North East Industrial Estate, on September 27, 2014.

Durham Crown Court heard that the site was powered down at the end of the ice cream season, but it was rented out to other companies.

Jonathan Walker, prosecuting, said the company initially believed up to £400,000-worth of damage was caused in the raid, but the eventual insurance claim was for £260,000, while the company lost more money as contracts could not be fulfilled.

The court heard the final bill in damage and equipment stolen was just short of £300,000.

A discarded bottle found in a compressor area in the aftermath of the break-in linked Swinney to the crime, as it contained his DNA.

Although he initially said someone else must have taken the bottle onto the site, 31-year-old Swinney, of Yoden Road, Peterlee, later admitted burglary.

But he claimed it was not pre-meditated, and he simply joined a man entering the site, to whom he had a drug debt.

Judge Simon Hickey dismissed his claim and said it appeared to have been a well-planned commercial burglary for “rich pickings”, involving at least three people.

Although Swinney was said to have no previous offences of burglary on his record, while also having remained out of trouble for five years, Judge Hickey told him he and his accomplices had caused the company, an employer of local people, “significant” difficulties.