Another chance for burglar (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Another chance for burglar

8:29am Monday 28th May 2007 in Swindon By Gazette Reporter

Burglar Kevin Clear has been given a chance to show he is going straight after committing three offences in eight days.

The 42-year-old was caught after a householder woke in the night to see him peering through his bedroom window in the middle of the night.

But a judge put off passing sentence for four months after hearing how Clear had not offended for more than two years before and five months after the spate of break ins.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon crown court a householder had gone to bed at his home on Ermin Street after midnight on the morning of Sunday January 7.

She said his bedroom is on the first floor and the window opens on to a flat roof above the bay window below.

When he turned in the man had left one of the windows open and was woken in the night by a scuffing noise.

He looked across the room and saw a face at the window with an arm reaching into the bedroom.

Miss Marlow said he got out of bed and went to the window to see a man running away across his front garden.

He called the police to report what had happened and give a description of the raider the call was logged at 4.14am.

Clear was found nearby by officers and matched the description given by the householder and tracked to a nearby garden by a dog handler when he ran off.

As he was arrested he said I want to go back to prison. I have spent 27 years inside. I can't handle it outside. I just saw the open window and tired to get in. I just want to go back to prison'.

When he was questioned he not only admitted the break in but also said he burgled two other houses the previous week.

On Saturday December 30 he broke into a house on Bunce Road and on Tuesday January 2 he broke into another property on Ermin Street.

Clear, of Frank Warman Court, Ermin Street, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted burglary and asked for two burglaries to be taken into consideration.

The court was told he had a long history of offending going back to 1980 with 12 previous counts of burglary He was released from prison in March 2004 having been jailed for five years in 2001 for burglary.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client had a long history of going in and out of prison but apart from the three offences had not offended since his last release.

Clear, he said, was undergoing drug and alcohol treatment and he hoped to get him into long term residential rehabilitation.

At the time of the short burst of offences he said something had happened in his life.

He said he was currently not drinking or taking drugs and complying with the assistance being given to him.

Mr Ross asked the court to put off passing sentence on condition his client complies with his care plan, co-operates with probation and does not re-offend.

He said were he to fail to comply he knew that he would be facing a return to prison.

Deferring sentence for four months Recorder David Lane QC said "I have got to say when I read the papers today I was thinking of a three year sentence.

"Looking at your history, you came out in 2004 and there is nine months of 2004 out of trouble, the whole of 2005, the whole of 2006 and out of trouble until almost New Year's Eve.

"You were arrested, showed full co-operation telling the police about the TICs and then you kept out of trouble since January. We have got to build on that, haven't we."