Shropshire Star

Jail for burglar who targeted Asian gold

A member of a gang which targeted Asian families -including on the Shropshire/Welsh border, near Oswestry - for gold  they had in their homes has been jailed for four years.

Published

In September sentencing totalling 42 years was imposed on the other gang members who admitted the conspiracy.

Now Patrick Doran has been given two-and-a-half years for his part in the conspiracy, which he admitted, and 18 months for a separate burglary in Wolverhampton.

Judge Niclas Parry, sitting at Mold Crown Court, told Doran, at the time of the Ruthin Road Caravan Site, Wrexham, but now of Beckett Street, Bilston, Wolverhampton, that he was being sentenced on the basis of two burglaries and his role with two other serious conspirators who were involved in the disposal of stolen goods at a pawnbrokers.

The 30-year-old was a member of a conspiracy which involved as many as 37 burglaries in Chester, The Wirral and the Shropshire/Welsh border, near Oswestry.

It was a planned, sophisticated gang crime involving the deliberate targeting of the Asian community. They had also targeted the elderly and the vulnerable, the court heard.

In one of the two burglaries Doran had been involved in, a retired gentleman had been confronted. At a time when he knew that police were looking for him, because of his association with others, he committed another burglary in Wolverhampton where an Asian family had been targeted and a woman returned home to find two men on the landing walking between bedrooms.

The judge took into account his guilty pleas, the fact that they were daytime burglaries and that he had no convictions for burglary.

Defending barrister Philip Tully said that his client had mental health problems and had been persuaded by others to get involved.

He was a family man with a wife and children, he was in employment and he was the main carer for a severely disabled family member.

The conspiracy involved a large number of burglaries over a considerable period of time, but Doran had been involved in two burglaries only.

The raiders were forensically aware with evidence of scenes being cleaned, latex gloves being used and bleach being poured to prevent possible detection by the police. Property to the value of more than £100,000 had been stolen.

Asian families' homes were deliberately targeted, the judge said, because offenders believed that high value gold would be in their homes. The conspiracy caused great concern to the Asian community, he said.

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