A 40-YEAR-OLD man was jailed for stealing batteries worth £6,700 from an industrial unit.

Arthur Stokes stole the batteries from kitchen equipment manufacturer Karcher UK Ltd in Beaumont Road, Banbury, while he was subject to a suspended sentence for another offence.

Stokes, of The Beeches, Chipping Norton, admitted taking the batteries, each worth £268, on November 27 last year.

He was arrested by police at the site after the alarm was raised by a security guard.

Stokes initially tried to claim he was legitimately collecting them, producing paperwork that on closer inspection turned out to be a label from one of the batteries.

Sentencing Stokes Judge Anthony King said: “This was a piece of deliberate thieving.

“Theft of metal at the moment is absolutely rife and those caught doing that must understand that they will suffer consequences as a result.”

Stokes was given an eight-month jail sentence for theft and his six-month suspended sentence was also activated, meaning he was jailed for a total of 14 months at Oxford Crown Court on Friday.