Burglar filled suitcase with haul at flat
0 Comments | Evening Post; Bristol (UK), Jul 27, 2010
AN 18-YEAR-OLD burglar was caught on CCTV entering his victim’s flat with a suitcase to fill with DVDs and computer games, a court heard.
Ross Madden was living in Bristol Foyer in the city centre, which provides accommodation for homeless youngsters, when he burgled two other residents last year.
Madden, who now lives with his girlfriend in Ashley Down Road, admitted the offences at Bristol Crown Court yesterday.
He was given a community order with an 18-month supervision requirement 1 and ordered to complete 160 hours of unpaid work as well as programme requirements.
Richard Posner, prosecuting, told the court that the first incident took place in October.
A resident at Bristol Foyer had to give in his flat keys as a deposit for playing pool, and Madden got hold of the keys and used them to enter the flat and steal 50 DVDs, two games consoles and 20 games, worth about Pounds 1,000.
Madden was seen on CCTV in the block of flats entering the victim’s flat with a suitcase, and leaving with it a while later.
The second offence took place between December 12 and 16, when he burgled the home of a woman who had only been living at the Foyer for five weeks.
When she went away on holiday, Madden broke in by smashing a window on her balcony.
Mr Posner said he stole a novelty light, a stereo and a laptop, worth Pounds 1,200, and then vandalised her room by turning over her mattress, taking everything off her shelves and emptying moisturiser over the walls.
Timothy Rose, defending, said that other people had been involved with the burglary in December, and that Madden had not been the one to vandalise the room.
Mr Rose told the court that Madden had been an ambassador for Knightstone Housing, who runs the Foyer, but had fallen in with the wrong crowd.
He said: “He simply did not understand the impact of these offences on the victims or the seriousness of the offences and how they would be viewed in the criminal justice system.
“But this lesson has now been lear ned.”
