Man who climbed on to rooftop after burglary jailed

Daniel Coulson scaled a town centre building after targeting three businesses

A man who forced part of a town centre to close after he scaled on to a shop roof following a burglary has been jailed.

Ipswich Crown Court heard Daniel Coulson, 50, raided Carats Jewellers on Buttermarket in Ipswich on 16 May and stayed on a rooftop for nine hours until emergency crews brought him down.

It was the third business he had broken in to in less than a week.

Coulson, of Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, admitted intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance and three counts of burglary. He was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

The cordon was in place for nine hours while emergency services attempted to get Coulson down safely

The court heard on 9 May Coulson stole a Mercedes car and 17 sets of keys from Europcar on Woodbridge Road.

The following week he took laptops, phones and cash from a recruitment firm. On the same morning, he broke into Carats Jewellers and took more than £9,000 of jewellery.

When a shop alarm went off, Coulson scaled on to a roof on Buttermarket.

Police were called and they set up a large cordon, forcing many shops to close until he was ushered down.

The cordon was lifted at about 13:40 BST, but by then business owners had lost thousands of pounds in trade.

The court heard Coulson had shown remorse for his actions

During sentencing, the court heard Coulson had 66 previous convictions - 36 for theft - and was on licence for a rape conviction from 2017 when the burglaries occurred.

In mitigation, his lawyer said he had shown "significant remorse" and suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after a "traumatic upbringing".

The court was also told he had relapsed into drug addiction at the time of the offences.

Judge David Pugh sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in prison.