Bungling Shrewsbury burglar left trail of prints

Leslie Garratt was arrested 48 hours after breaking into the Shrewsbury homes because he used a phone taken from one of the addresses to call his partner, Shrewsbury Crown Court was told.

Garratt admitted two counts of burglary and one count of theft from a car when he appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday. He was jailed for two years and 21 weeks for what Judge Peter Barrie described as "by no means sophisticated burglaries".

The court heard Garratt crept into two homes in the same street on the evening of Marc 29, leaving his fingerprints on the door handles.

Mr Kevin Jones, prosecuting, said the occupants of one of the houses in Eden Close, Shrewsbury, had gone to bed at 9.30pm.

"During the night, one of the occupiers, a female, was awoken by the cat being upstairs, which was unusual," he said.

Thinking someone must have left a door open downstairs, the woman took the cat back down and thought nothing more of it, he said.

But in the morning she noticed the spare room door was ajar, her shoes had been moved, and the kitchen cupboards were all open.

All that had been taken was a mobile phone, pouches of tobacco and cigarette papers, along with £10, Mr Jones said.

He had also used the car keys to search their car outside.

Garratt, 34, of Judith Butts Gardens, Shrewsbury, also crept through an unlocked conservatory door and into the home of a family with a four-year-old child.

He took a tablet computer, a watch and a small amount of money, as well as the keys to the car outside, though again he only searched the car, this time taking a Pandora charm brooch bought as a Mother's Day present and worth about £50.

Police found the mobile from the first house had been used to call Garratt's partner on three occasions on the night of the burglary.

His flat was searched for the stolen items, and he was arrested.

Mr Adrian Roberts, for Garratt, said his client had a poor record for theft.

He was in an upset state and had been drinking heavily the night before.

The burglaries were not well thought out with fingerprints left at the scene, he said.

"He hadn't even taken the precaution of putting gloves on," Mr Roberts said.

He said the items taken were of relatively low value, and the burglaries were committed very quickly, Garratt was home by 10.30pm, when he made the phone calls that first led the police to him.

He had not ransacked either house, but had simply searched them, he said.