Man who climbed on to rooftop after burglary jailed

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 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.

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.

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