A thief caused thousands of pounds of damage when he broke into a secure compound over the Christmas break and broke into 16 BMW cars.

Simon Simms cut his way through the fence at Brown Brothers' premises at Bramble Road, Elgin, on the night of December 27 and stole the stereos from the cars.

Kate Brown, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that the vehicles were owned by White Arrow and were being stored in the compound.

Each of the cars had a rear quarterlight broken and the dashboard damaged as the stereo units were pulled out.

She said the value of the stolen stereos were worth £1,920 and Simms caused £2,992 worth of damage, making the total loss to White Arrow of £4,912.

As well as the stereos she said a BMW three series car worth £12,000 was also stolen from the compound by being driven through the hole in the fence. It was later found burnt out.

Simms was caught after police found traces of blood at the scene and tracked him down by using DNA technology.

When he was arrested he made no comment but in a later interview admitted the offences saying he disabled the car alarms before breaking the windows.

The 26-year-old admitted charges of theft and taking without the owner's consent and asked for two further counts of theft to be taken into consideration.

Miss Brown said they related to £4,000 worth of alloy wheels and tyres being stolen from a secure compound at The Bramp-tons between December 24 and 29 last year and £2,000 worth of alloy wheels and tyres being taken from an Audi on December 23.

The court heard that Simmons, who is currently serving an 18-month prison term for aggravated taking without consent, driving while disqualified and dangerous driving, has a long record of previous convictions.

He was put on probation by magistrates in Weston-super-Mare on December 22 last year, just days before these offences were committed. Recorder Anthony Davies QC jailed Simms for a total of eight months.