A 39-year-old man has been handed a suspended jail sentence for stealing library books across the country.

The man received a 12-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months when he appeared at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, according to a statement from Warwickshire Police.

The court heard the man travelled the country taking out expensive non-fiction books from libraries before trying to sell them online.

He stole over 900 books over three years taking them from libraries as far north as Morpeth in Northumberland and as far south as Truro in Cornwall.

He also borrowed and failed to return books from libraries in London, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, the West Midlands and Warwickshire (including Kenilworth) – eventually pleading guilty to 12 offences of theft.

"Please don't take a page out of his book - library books are public funds so in the coming months we'll be using the Proceeds of Crime Act to recover the lost money," the statement said.