A 37-year-old Ballymena man was sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing scrap metal from a mechanic's yard in Ballymena.

Damian Pawel Zawadzki, formerly of Dunclug Park and now living at Dunclug Gardens, admitted taking scrap metal valued at £500 from the yard on 23 March this year.

Ballymena Magistrates' Court heard that gates at the yard were open while the owner was at lunch. CCTV footage showed Zawadzki and another man loading the metal onto a flatbed lorry. The metal was not recovered and the second man was not identified.

Zawadzki also admitted stealing alcohol worth £9 from a Spar shop on Grove Road on 4 December last year and alcohol worth £50 from the same shop on 10 December.

The defendant has 58 previous convictions, including 25 for theft, and served a prison sentence in 2011.

District Judge Nigel Broderick described the scrap metal theft as a brazen offence committed in daylight and stated that the day marked the end of the road for Zawadzki.

As part of £500 bail granted for an appeal, Zawadzki was barred from entering any Spar shop in Northern Ireland.