Thursday 1 April 2010

Drunken Raider's Late-Night Break-In


A bungling boozy burglar, who left tell tale DNA evidence behind after breaking into a newsagent’s in the middle of the night, dodged jail yesterday (Wednesday).

Caretaker John Crowley, 39, of Greenbay Road, Charlton, South East London was convicted by a Croydon Crown Court jury of burgling Royal Parade News, 3 Church Row, Chiselhurst, Kent, (pictured) on August 22, last year.

The court heard the shop’s owner discovered a glass panel in the front door had been smashed, causing £700 worth of damage and fifteen boxes of cigarettes, worth £300 had been snatched from the display.

Police discovered Crowley’s blood on the broken glass and he was arrested after a match was made on the national DNA database.

“This was a sad relapse by you, largely because you got terribly drunk while in the habit of binge drinking,” Recorder Nicholas Heathcote Williams QC told Crowley.

He was sentenced to seventy hours community service work and ordered to pay £750 compensation to the shopkeeper.

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