A 23-year-old man was handed a suspended jail sentence for receiving $8,250 of stolen jewellery.Dandre Butler, of Middletown, Pembroke, had attempted to sell the 22 items at a Hamilton gold shop.Magistrates’ Court heard that the items was just a fraction of the valuables stolen from a Lover’s Lane, Paget home on November 29.The complainant left her home at around 10.30am that day.When she returned at 3pm, she discovered that the upper bedrooms had been ransacked and around $57,450 of items were missing.Police were later called to the Bermuda Gold Exchange on Reid Street, where staff gave them a bag of 22 items matching the description of some of the stolen goods.The staff members identified Butler as the man who attempted to trade the jewellery for cash, and he was subsequently arrested.Butler maintained that he had nothing to do with the robbery, but pleaded guilty last month to receiving the stolen goods.During his sentencing yesterday, Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner said the offence described has become increasingly common in Bermuda, and that those who receive stolen goods are just as responsible as those who steal them.“If there were not handlers, receivers, then there would be no thefts, no break-ins,” he said. “He said he didn’t break into the place, but he is equally culpable, and the sentence is the same.”Duty counsel Kenville Savoury said Butler had no previous convictions and had cooperated significantly with officers investigating the matter, providing police with names.Mr Savoury suggested a suspended sentence would be suitable given all the circumstances.Considering all the facts of the case, Mr Warner reiterated the serious nature of the offence, but noted the early guilty plea and the defendant’s cooperation.“This cooperation impresses me in that one of the aggravating features of this type of offence is that there is a story given about how they came into possession of the stolen goods which makes no sense,” Mr Warner said. “Normally, the names are forgotten.”He sentenced Butler to six months in prison, but suspended the sentence for a period of two years.