Police have insisted a lockdown will not stop them tackling crime after a man was jailed for stealing from a Boots store in Ipswich.

The burglary happened at the store in Tavern Street shortly before 6pm on Sunday, March 22, when entry was forced via a window.

An undisclosed amount of fragrance bottles was stolen, before a man handling the goods was pursued through the town centre and arrested by officers from the Ipswich Central Neighbourhood Team.

After being questioned and charged at Bury St Edmunds Police Investigation Centre, 35-year-old Robert Wilson, of Mousehold Street, Norwich, appeared before Suffolk Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, March 24.

Magistrates sentenced Wilson to 28 weeks in prison for burglary and criminal damage offences relating to a broken window at a residential property in Northgate Street the same evening.

He was also sentenced to 12 weeks for separate shoplifting offences between December 2019 and February 2020 in Norwich and ordered to pay £100 compensation costs.

Inspector Vicky McParland, from the Ipswich Central Team, said: “Town centre officers on patrol quickly detained this offender so to see Wilson receive this custodial sentence is very satisfying.

“We continue to work with shops and CCTV in order to reduce the number of offences occurring in our town centre and in the current COVID-19 lockdown, the police are still very much tackling criminality as usual.”