A MAN who sold a stolen camera to a Cowley Road secondhand store has avoided jail.

Rodney Brain, 34, admitted handling stolen goods after selling the stolen Panasonic camera from the U-Play store.

It was taken during a burglary at a house in The Slade, Headington, on April 9.

Tom Quinn, prosecuting, said at Oxford Crown Court that Brain was approached and asked to sell the camera for a fee of £20.

He said: “He accepts that he was aware that the item was stolen.”

Brain, of Lucy Faithfull House, Speedwell Street, Oxford, sold the camera with his own ID, he said.

Graham Bennett, defending, said the offence was committed while Brain was “going through a particularly difficult period”.

Unemployed Brain had recently been released from prison and had no accommodation, he said.

He added: “He has been able to move away from an otherwise unhealthy lifestyle and embark upon what he hopes will be a better way of being able to avoid the criminal courts.”

Judge Tom Corrie said at Friday’s sentencing that prison would be “unconstructive”.

He added: “I propose to give you the opportunity of avoiding prison again.”

Brain was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for 18 months with a 12-month supervision order and ordered to attend a work activity scheme.