Man jailed for 13 months for Banksy print gallery burglary

A man who admitted stealing a Banksy print from a central London gallery has been jailed for 13 months.

Larry Fraser, 49, stole a limited edition signed print of Girl with Balloon from the Grove Gallery in New Cavendish Street on September 8 to pay off a historic drug debt.

The artwork was part of an exhibition at the gallery showcasing a collection of 13 Banksy works worth £1.5 million.

At Kingston Crown Court, judge Anne Brown told Fraser: “This is a brazen and serious non-domestic burglary.”

On September 8 last year, Fraser was caught on security cameras waiting outside the gallery for about 10 minutes, then repeatedly smashing the glass door with a heavy, blunt object.

When he entered the building at around 23:00 BST he went directly to the numbered photograph and was seen on security cameras carrying the print across the road shortly afterwards.

The court heard the value of the print returned undamaged was around £270,000.

Fraser, of Beckton, east London, pleaded guilty to one count of burglary and may be eligible for immediate release due to time spent on electronic curfew.

A second man, James Love, 54, was cleared of stealing the print following a trial after he was accused of being a getaway driver.

The court heard Fraser put forward a defense in which he said he owed money for a drug debt he was trying to pay off and agreed to commit the offense “under some degree of duress and fear”.

He said he did not know the target of the theft and did not know its value until the day of the theft.

Judge Brown said: “Although you did not know the exact value of the prints, you clearly understood that it was very valuable.”

The court heard Fraser had 18 previous convictions but his most recent was in 2002.

He was later jailed for theft and unlawful wounding but had been “out of trouble” since his release from prison in 2008.

Jeffrey Israel, defending, said Fraser, who lived with his mother as his primary carer, had managed to “break the cycle of drug addiction” after his latest prison sentence.

He said it would “require bold advocacy” to argue that the value of oppression had increased because of what had happened to it, but added: “That’s probably the truth.”