A MAN who staked out a garden centre before more than £20,000 worth of stock was stolen has been jailed for eight months.

Traveller Danny O’Loughlin, 36, visited Burford Garden Centre the day before it was raided and was seen on CCTV cameras checking out the layout and security systems.

He then relayed this information to others who carried out the burglary on December 12 last year.

The prolific burglar has 17 previous convictions and is serving a prison sentence for a separate offence.

He was jailed on Friday for 32 weeks for aiding and abetting burglary by Mr Recorder Simon Blackford at Oxford Crown Court.

The sentence was ordered to run consecutively with his current prison term, from which he was due to be released in February next year.

Travellers Dawn Dulake, Karley Gill and Faye Johnson also appeared in court to be sentenced for handling the stolen goods. The defendants previously pleaded guilty. Johnson, 34, was given a conditional discharge after already serving six weeks in custody for the crime after being found in the possession of a stolen dress from a separate burglary.

Dulake, 51, was handed a four-month prison term, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work after goods worth just more than £1,000 from the raid were found by police, in her caravan.

Gill, 32, was ordered to undertake 100 hours of unpaid work for handling under £1,000 in goods stolen.

Police raided caravans in the Wychavon site, Evesham Road, Cleeve Prior, where the four lived.