Burglar jailed after breaking into home of elderly victim

A man from Gloucester has been jailed after breaking into the home of an elderly woman whose husband was in hospital.

Charles Thomas, aged 51, and of Ryecroft Street, Gloucester, pleaded guilty to burglary and was sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court on Friday 26 November to two-and-a-half years in prison.

Thomas was arrested after an 85-year-old woman returned from doing her shopping to discover her home in Midland Road had been broken into. She discovered that two TVs were missing and that her bedroom had been searched.

CCTV showed a tall, well-built black man taking the two stolen TVs from the front door and placing them into a nearby parked red Nissan Micra.

Officers in Gloucester Neighbourhood Policing Team at Barton Street suspected Thomas, who had recently been released from prison for previous counts of burglary and who was living at an address close to the incident.

They viewed further CCTV which showed Thomas attending the probation office before leaving in a red Nissan Micra car shortly before the burglary took place. The burglar was also wearing the same clothes as Thomas when he attended his probation meeting.

Thomas was arrested on 19 November and was charged with burglary. He pleading guilty when he appeared at Gloucester Crown Court last week.

PC Jon Furse said: "I'm glad that the courts have imposed this sentence on him. This is a great example of the team at Barton Street having that positive relationship with the community of Tredworth so that information can be used to quickly arrest offenders.

"Hopefully, members of the community will take solace in the fact that within 48 hours of this burglary being committed, Thomas had been arrested and charged with the crime.

"The Tredworth community is not open to being taken advantage of and I can tell you that officers will not allow people to think they can come into this community, commit crime and get away with it."