Here are the biggest cases heard at Sheffield Crown Court this week with offences including murder and burglary

The defendants jailed at Sheffield Crown Court over the last few days have been handed sentences totalling 47 years and fines of £600,000.

Anton Ziga: Jailed Sheffield heroin addict stole police officer's wallet during burglary

Sheffield Crown Court heard on August 5 how burglar Anton Ziga, aged 31, of Rushby Street, Grimesthorpe, Sheffield, struck at a nearby property on Popple Street and at another nearby property on Robey Street.

Gurdhial Singh, prosecuting, said Ziga stole £2,845 worth of property from the home on Popple Street including jewellery during a burglary in December, 2021, as well as a bank card which he used repeatedly to obtain £82 worth of goods.

Mr Singh added that Ziga also raided a home on Robey Street in February, 2022, and stole items including a TV and an Xbox, as well as a laptop and a wallet belonging to the occupant’s brother, who is a police officer.

Ziga, who has previously been convicted of another burglary, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary and seven offences of fraud concerning the stolen bank card.

The judge – Recorder Felicity Davies – sentenced Ziga to 18 months of custody after she told him she had taken into account that he began committing offences after he was laid-off during the pandemic and that since he has been remanded in custody he has got off drugs.

Jacob Carroll and Jordan Davies: Two murderers sentenced to life imprisonment after teenager is stabbed to death

Sheffield Crown Court heard during a sentencing hearing on August 3 how 27-year-old Jacob Carroll and 26-year-old Jordan Davies were both found guilty by a trial jury of murdering 18-year-old Joevester Takyi-Sarpong, known as Joe.

Prosecuting barrister Mark McCone had told the jury the defendants had chased Joe before he was stabbed and murdered on October 31, 2021, and his body was found near to the derelict former Doncaster County Court building the following morning.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC told the defendants: “You both participated in stabbing a man with a view to scaring him from drug dealing from what you regarded as your patch for peddling illegal drugs on the Balby housing estate, in Doncaster.”

The judge stressed that although Joe had peddled drugs “from time to time” he was far from convinced Joe had been doing so on the evening he was attacked.

Mr McCone had said Joe had been with friend Warren Flanagan when a group started shouting and as Joe and Warren ran they were pursued by the defendants on bicycles.

Joe’s body was later found with a stab wound to each leg the following day.

Judge Richardson sentenced both Carroll and Davies, both of no fixed abode, to life imprisonment and told them they must both serve a minimum of 22 years before they can be considered for release.

He added: “Those who kill others in the way you did and against the backdrop of carrying knives associated with drug-dealing must expect to be punished with appropriate severity.”

Sokol Shabani: Man jailed as police reveal discovery of cannabis plants worth £11m

Sokol Shabani, aged 31 and of no fixed abode, was jailed for 18 months, over the discovery of a cannabis factory in a former jewellers.

Officers from South Yorkshire Police raided the shop on Effingham Street in Rotherham town centre and found 300 Cannabis plants being grown in six rooms.

Officers arrested and charged Shabani and he was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court.

The drug den was discovered as part of Operation Grow, aimed at identifying and dismantling cannabis farms in Rotherham.

Since its launch in 2021, just under 100 warrants have been executed and 11,053 plants have been recovered with a £11 million pound street value.

Howard Civil Engineering Ltd: Company fined £600K after boy died on building site dubbed a "potential death trap"

Sheffield Crown Court heard on August 4 how eight-year-old Conley Thompson’s body was found trapped in an above ground construction pipe at a building site on Bank End Road, Worsbrough, Barnsley, the day after he had gone missing.

Barrister Andrew McGee, representing the Health and Safety Executive, previously told the court the HSE launched an investigation after Conley Thompson’s body was found trapped in a pipe at the Howard Civil Engineering Ltd’s Church View housing building site on July 27, 2015.

Howard Civil Engineering Ltd, which has no previous convictions, subsequently admitted Health and Safety Act breaches including failing to prevent unauthorised access to the site and failing to prevent people not employed by them from being exposed to risk after fencing on three sides of the site was deemed inadequate.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said: “It would have been regarded as a wonderful adventure playground by a child. It was of course nothing of the kind.

"It was a building site and was capable of being a death trap for someone with no right to be there.”

Judge Richardson found boundary failures at the site included: no fencing in some places; gaps in the fencing; objects on the outer perimeter allowing climbing access; damaged fencing; low fencing; and a reliance on boundaries from others’ property and walls.

He added Howard Civil Engineering had failed to undertake a risk assessment, provide or install fencing and had failed to mend and update fencing after previous incursions.

Judge Richardson said: “The dangers were obvious. This otherwise entirely responsible company made a mistake and it was a bad mistake that it should not have made.”

He added: "The site was obviously a death trap - in so many respects most building sites are – and that is why there needs to be a secure and effective boundary.”

The court heard there was an extensive police investigation before the matter was handed over to the HSE when it was deemed there were no suspicious circumstances involved.

Judge Richardson acknowledged the site had been challenging for Howard Engineering Ltd because of its slopes and that the company has an otherwise good safety record and implemented perimeter security improvements with new fencing and CCTV after the tragedy.

He fined Howard Engineering Ltd £600,000 and also ordered the company to pay £42,952.88 in legal costs.

Following the hearing, Michael Howard, Founder and Managing Director of Howard Civil Engineering, said: “Conley’s death was a tragic accident, and our thoughts and condolences remain with his family, who have suffered an unimaginable loss.

"We hope that the conclusion of this process can at least go some way in providing everyone affected by this tragedy with some resolution.