Man who stole 200,000 chocolate eggs sentenced to 18 months in jail

LONDON — A man in the United Kingdom who stole 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs weeks before Easter has been sentenced to 18 months in jail.

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Joby Pool, 32, stole about $40,000 worth of Cadbury Creme Eggs on Feb. 11. Pool broke into an industrial unit and took off with the chocolates in a stolen truck, the PA Media news agency reported, according to CNN.

On Thursday, Pool was sentenced to a year and a half in jail. Half of that time will be spent behind bars, with the other half on license along with the previous six months in custody counting toward his sentence, PA reported, according to CNN.

Pool admitted at an earlier hearing that he took the trailer filled with chocolate in Telford, Shropshire, according to the BBC.

“He stopped the vehicle when he realized he was being followed. He realized that the game was up – he realized the police were behind him and pulled in when it was safe to do so,” Pool’s then-solicitor John McMillan told the court in an earlier hearing, according to CNN. McMillan said that Pool didn’t resists and was arrested.

He previously pleaded guilty to criminal damage and driving without a license, CNN reported.

“If one looks at what must have happened here, we are looking at a significant degree of planning,” Judge Anthony Lowe said. The judge was not convinced that Pool worked alone and believed other people were involved, according to the BBC. “You are not a man of good character as you have committed theft before in 2019.”

After Pool’s arrest, West Mercia Police Department on Twitter said that they had “helped save Easter for Creme Egg fans” calling the incident an “eggs-travagent theft,” according to CNN.