JEWELLERY thieves who raided a town centre shop have been jailed.

Brian McKenna, prosecuting, told how the Lauren Ashley kiosk in Bolton’s Market Place shopping centre was locked up at 5pm on January 10 last year.

But 45 minutes later another business owner heard someone shout “grab some more” and saw two men taking armfuls of jewellery from the kiosk, which had had its wooden hatch broken open.

An estimated £15,000 worth of jewels were taken and never recovered.

After viewing CCTV footage in the centre, police identified Aaron Goodman, Joseph Vandersteen and Marlon Fitzgerald with a fourth man.

Bolton Crown Court was told that two months earlier, on November 20, 2012, Goodman and Vandersteen had also broken into the Eagle Bistro at the University of Bolton after it closed for the evening.

The office was ransacked and lockers broken into, but nothing was stolen. A footprint on a work surface was identified as belonging to Goodman and police spotted him and Vandersteen on CCTV film at the university.

Vandersteen, aged 24, of Mulberry Court, Salford, pleaded guilty to the two burglaries, plus a burglary at Bowden Cricket Club and two further burglaries and an attempted burglary at business premises in Manchester city centre.

He also asked for four further offences to be taken into consideration.

Goodman, aged 26, of Strawberry Road, Salford, pleaded guilty to burglaries at the Eagle Bistro and the jewellers and Fitzgerald, aged 24, of no fixed address, admitted a single count of burglary at the jewellers.

Mohammed Nawaz, defending Goodman, said although he has an extensive record for burglary he was now keen to turn his life around. Marsha Myers, defending Vandersteen, said he is hoping to do a degree course in physiotherapy and feels ashamed of his past behaviour.

The Honorary Recorder of Bolton Judge Timothy Clayson sentenced Vandersteen to 27 months in jail, with Goodman and Fitzgerald given 15 months each.