£40,000 burglar is jailed for three years
A burglar has been jailed for more than three years after items worth more than £40,000 were stolen from family homes and taken to a hotel used as a bolt hole.
Matthew Lockley admitted the burglary of a house near Tong, Shropshire, where a Ford Mustang worth £36,000 and other items worth about £1,000 belonging to a hospital consultant went missing.
He also admitted handling jewellery and other goods worth about £7,000 from another house in Bishops Wood on the Staffordshire border that was ransacked.
The sentencing hearing was told that in both incidents the victims were asleep when the properties were hit in the new year.
Lockley, 33, was arrested with an accomplice at the Premier Inn, in Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, after staff became suspicious of the behaviour of a group of men who were staying there.
He pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, handling and theft ahead of a trial at Shrewsbury Crown Court.
Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said: "On the evening of January 10 the victim at the house near Tong was awakened by the sound of a cat. At first he thought it had been locked out. He went back downstairs and discovered that his property had been burgled. Among the stolen items was the key to the Ford Mustang which had been left on the drive.
"The police arrived shortly afterwards and found a mountain bike leaned up against the wall. Forensic tests uncovered Lockley's DNA on the handlebars.
"Officers went to the Premier Inn Wolverhampton North after receiving a report from staff that three men were acting suspiciously. The defendant was arrested outside the main reception doors. The police went to the room and where they discovered a large amount of property. Recovered were items which had come from the burglaries."
Mr Edwards added that the Mustang was found in the hotel's car park.
He said Lockley, who been sentenced 43 times for 104 previous offences dating to 1996, had denied knowledge of the burglaries and the gave "no comment" replies in his police interview. His convictions included dwelling and commercial burglaries, shoplifting, assault and taking vehicles without consent.
Mr Graham Russell, defending, said Lockley had been sleeping rough in a shed, in Whitmore Reans, and was offered accommodation by his accomplice. He said he had missed two court hearings in February due to injuries suffered in an incident while on prison remand.
For the burglary near Tong he was sentenced to four months, for the car theft 20 months to run concurrently, for handling of the jewellery and clothes 18 months to run consecutively.
Recorder Mr Michael Jackson said Lockley's time already spent on remand will be taken into account.
"I have given you a sentence that is going to reflect your criminality," Mr Jackson added.
