A fence caught with scores of stolen Amazon parcels in the back of his car has been jailed for 11 months.

Police discovered the haul just days after a driver for the internet superstore was robbed of his Vauxhall Vivaro van in Nuneham Courtenay.

Joseph Holden, 27, denied involvement in the robbery but admitted handling the stolen parcels.

Sentencing him to 11 months’ imprisonment, Judge Maria Lamb said: “You know what you’re here for; for your dealings with stolen property valued somewhere in the region of £2,500 which came from a recently committed robbery.”

Prosecutor Dr Robert Lindsey told Oxford Crown Court that the Amazon driver was out delivering parcels in Nuneham Courtney on January 4 last year when he was ordered to hand over his keys to the van.

Inside were 107 parcels worth a total of £2,592. The van, which was driven off towards Oxford, was later recovered in Littlemore.

The next day, January 5, police got a tip-off from a member of the public about a number of abandoned Amazon delivery bags in Lodden Avenue, Berinsfield. They raided a house on the street and found 20 items that had been stolen in the robbery.

On January 7, officers were told about a dumped Ford that had been stolen several months earlier. Inside the car were 40 stolen Amazon parcels. Holden was linked to both parcel hauls by his fingerprints.

Holden, of HMP Bullingdon, had 31 convictions on his record for 63 offences, including for handling stolen goods and aggravated vehicle taking.

He had been due to stand trial on the robbery charge but pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods at an earlier hearing.

Stephen Donnelly, defending, said his client acknowledged he had ‘little mitigation that can be advanced’. He asked the judge to take into account his client’s early guilty plea and the several months he’d spent on remand.

Last May, Holden was given 32 months for a string of crimes – including stealing a car, driving it while banned from the roads and assaulting special constables.

A co-defendant, Kane Jones, 25, of Hayward Bridge Road, Stadhampton, one of the residents at the Lodden Avenue home being used to store the parcels, had been due to be sentenced for handling stolen goods. When he failed to turn up at court, Judge Lamb issued a warrant for his arrest.

Joseph Holden, who has been jailed for 11 months at Oxford Crown Court Pictures: TVP

Joseph Holden, who has been jailed for 11 months at Oxford Crown Court Pictures: TVP

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