Brighton man faces antique burglary charge

A Brighton man has been charged with burglary after a break in at an auction house.

Anthony Townsend, 49, of Upper Lewes Road, Brighton, has been charged after a burglary at Stroud Auctions in Rodborough, just outside Stroud in Gloucestershire, in October last year.

He is accused of breaking into Stroud Auctions with Darryl Aldridge, a 46-year-old man from New Barn Road, Shoreham. Aldridge is also accused of eight other break ins.

The charges follow an investigation by the Sussex Police Serious Organised Crime Unit.

The items stolen include antique clocks, jewellery, vases, figurines and furniture with an estimated value of £200,000.

Property worth about £160,000 has been recovered so far.

Alan Topping, 49, of Holland Road, Hove, has already admitted two of the nine burglaries.

He pleaded guilty at Northern Oxfordshire Crown Court in January to a break in at Concord in Cranbrook, Kent, in June last year.

He also admitted another burglary at JS Auctions in Banbury, Oxfordshire, last July.

He was jailed for 26 months.

Luke Hammond, 21, of Foredown Drive, Portslade, was convicted at Northern Oxfordshire Crown Court in April of the burglary in Banbury and was sentenced to a community order.

Two others face related charges – Kelly Lambert, 39, of Lavender Hill, Shoreham, and Anthony Fortune, 54, of Park Road, Worthing.

Lambert has been charged with stealing from Toovey’s in Washington, West Sussex, last October.

Fortune is accused of perverting the course of justice.

Lambert and Fortune will join Townsend and Aldridge in the dock at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (14 June).

In February Ashley Symes, 45, of Heath Close, Horsham, was convicted at Lewes Crown Court of another of the burglaries.

He was jailed for four years for the break in at Gorringes in Lewes in June last year and a number of other offences.