Jail for £1m country house crook

Career criminal Graham Harkin, from Wakefield, tried to claim a £25,000 reward for returning a Thomas Tompion clock stolen from Levens Hall, near Kendal, Cumbria and thought he was dealing with an agent of its real owner.

But the exchange at Birch Services on the M62 was with a police officer, and when he was arrested officers found the clock - more than 300 years old - in the boot of his BMW.

It had been stolen in September 2009 by an intruder who used a ladder to smash a window.

Detectives from Cumbria Police liaised with other forces and linked Harkin’s mobile phone with other high value thefts elsewhere.

This week at Carlisle Crown Court he admitted burgling Firle Place, near Lewes, Sussex, where 18th century Sevres porcelain worth more than £1 million was stolen in a night break-in.

Detectives also placed Harkin at a break-in at Longnor Hall, Shropshire, partly because of the thief’s lack of sophistication.

The court heard that he was a member of the National Trust and would visit country houses to look for weaknesses in security.

Harkin, a 58-year-old grandfather, from Chestnut Walk, looked shaken when he was jailed for nine years.

He admitted two counts of burglary in relation to the Sussex and Shropshire break-ins and one count of handling the clock.