Airport worker Rodney Shirley jailed for cargo theft 5 September 2013 Last updated at 11:59 An airport worker who stole a crate of mobile phones from a cargo flight at George Best Belfast City Airport has been jailed for six months. Belfast Crown Court heard cargo driver Rodney Shirley, from Oldpark Road, north Belfast, had to load and unload freight from planes as part of his job. The prosecution said that on 8 January, a worker at Birmingham airport alerted staff at Belfast that a crate was missing from a consignment. The mobile phones were worth £6,948. The court was told that police were alerted and when officers checked CCTV footage, they saw Shirley unload seven crates when there should have been eight. Positions of trust Arrested and interviewed, 28-year-old Shirley admitted stealing the crate of second hand mobile phones but refused to tell police what he had done with them. A defence lawyer told the judge that his client had been put "under pressure" by certain individuals to steal the phones. The lawyer also said that quite apart from any sentence the court imposed, Shirley had already faces penalties in the loss of his job and reputation. Jailing Shirley, the judge said the theft represented a breach of trust and that as such, "there must be deterrent sentences in this case so that people like you and others in positions of trust are deterred."