Man jailed for 13 months for Banksy print gallery burglary

A man has been sentenced to 13 months in prison after admitting stealing a Banksy print from a gallery in central London.

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

The artwork had been part of an exhibition showcasing a £1.5 million collection of 13 Banksy pieces at the gallery.

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

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

When he got into the building at about 23:00 BST, he went straight to the numbered picture and was seen on security cameras a short time later, carrying the print across a road.

The value of the print, which was returned without damage, was approximately £270,000, the court heard.

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 basis of plea in which he said he owed money due to a drug debt he was struggling to settle and agreed to commit the offence “under a degree of pressure and fear”.

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

Judge Brown said: “Whilst you did not know the precise value of the print, you obviously understood it to be very valuable.”

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

Then he was jailed for robbery and unlawful wounding but he had been “out of trouble” since being freed from prison in 2008.

Jeffrey Israel, defending, said Fraser, who lived with his mother as her principal carer, managed to “break his cycle of drug addiction” after his last prison sentence.

He said it “would take a bold advocate” to suggest the value of the print had increased by what happened to it, but added: “That is probably the reality.”