A 30-year-old man has been given an eight-week curfew keeping him off the streets between 7pm and 7am after he was caught breaking into a police trap car.

Raymond McCavery, of Southfield Park Flats, Oxford, was charged with theft from a motor vehicle on January 24, after he was captured on film breaking into the police trap car the day before in Cowley.

McCavery appeared at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday where he admitted the offence and received the eight-week, electronically-monitored curfew.

Det Sgt Richard Pickering, from the Oxford auto-crime team, said: “This is actually the second time in the past year that McCavery has been caught breaking into a police trap car.

“This demonstrates how effective this type of police operation is, allowing us to target the city’s vehicle crime offenders.

“However it is just one of a number of techniques we use, and I hope this result would make someone who is even contemplating breaking into a car think twice before they do.

“Vehicle crime can cause both distress and expense and we would advise that nothing is left on display inside the vehicle, such as satellite navigation systems, money, mobile phones or laptops, and also items like personal mail and cheque books.”