A man was caught red-handed trying to sell $8,250 worth of gold jewellery that was part of a $57,450 haul stolen during a burglary.Dandre Butler, 23, initially claimed he didn’t realise the 22 items he tried to sell at the Bermuda Gold Exchange were the proceeds of crime.However, he admitted his guilt to dishonestly receiving the stolen goods when he appeared at Magistrates’ Court yesterday.Prosecutor Susan Mulligan said the burglary took place at a home in Lover’s Lane, Paget, on November 29.She explained that the victim left the residence for the day at 10.30am. When she returned at 3pm, she discovered the upper bedrooms had been ransacked and items strewn about.Police arrived and conducted forensic tests of the crime scene. The victim, assessed that items totalling $57,450 had gone missing.Ms Mulligan said that police were called to the gold shop on Reid Street in Hamilton the day after the burglary. Staff handed over a bag with 22 items inside and identified Butler, of Middletown Lane, Pembroke, as the person who tried to exchange them for money.He was arrested the same day and told police he was the person who attended the gold shop but denied knowing the jewellery was stolen.Butler denied a charge of burgling the house. He admitted receiving stolen goods but reversed his plea to not guilty after his stepfather shouted at him across the courtroom to do so. He later changed back to guilty again after receiving advice from duty defence lawyer Oonagh Vaucrosson.Ms Vaucrosson told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner that Butler got the items from acquaintances, and has assisted the police by providing names.Butler told the court he has just finished serving in the Regiment and is in a reggae dance group that performed in the recent Christmas parade in Hamilton.He said that being unemployed “doesn’t help the situation” he is in and he had taken items to Bermuda Gold Exchange in the past and been paid straight away.“This is the first time something like this has happened,” he said.Mr Warner said: “I make no comment about your past dealings with that establishment but certainly if someone brings 22 separate items of jewellery to you and tells you to go and sell them and you’re going to get a cut, there must be an onus on you to find out who did they belong to, where did they come from and if they were stolen.“In the absence of due diligence on your part there’s a strong inference that you knew or believed it was stolen.”The defendant agreed with Mr Warner who went on to warn of the psychological impact burglaries have on homeowners and the danger they can escalate into violence.He told Butler there “must be a deterrence aspect” in the sentence meted out, but adjourned the case at Ms Vaucrosson’s request for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.Butler had been in custody since his arrest, but Mr Warner released him on bail on the condition that he wears an electronic tag to monitor his whereabouts and stays at his Middle Town home.The court heard that an investigation into the burglary is continuing, but no one else has been charged as yet.