A man who stole a £270,000 Banksy print from a London art gallery to pay off a drug debt has been sentenced to 13 months in prison. Larry Fraser, 48, broke into the Grove Gallery in Fitzrovia last September and took a limited-edition artwork from Banksy’s Girl With Balloon series.
The theft was captured on CCTV, showing Fraser using a hammer to smash through glass doors at around 11pm on September 8. He wore a mask, gloves, and a hooded jacket to conceal his identity. Judge Anne Brown described the incident as a “brazen and serious non-domestic burglary”.
Detectives from the Met’s Flying Squad traced Fraser within hours using CCTV footage that showed him loading the print into a van. He was arrested at his home on September 10, less than two days after the break-in, and charged the following day. The artwork was recovered during a warrant on the Isle of Dogs on September 12.
Kingston Crown Court heard Fraser pleaded guilty to one count of burglary. He claimed he owed money due to a historic drug debt and agreed to commit the offence “under a degree of pressure and fear”. He said he did not know the target of the burglary until the day of the offence and was unaware of its value.
The court heard Fraser had 18 previous convictions, but the most recent was in 2002, and he had been out of trouble since 2008. His defence said he had broken his cycle of drug addiction and lived with his mother as her principal carer. Judge Brown said the offence was “simply too serious” for a suspended sentence. A second man, James Love, 54, was cleared of stealing the print.
