A drug-addict burglar who smashed his way into a suburban family home – snatching £3,500 worth of valuables, including a sentimental wedding ring – somehow dodged prison today.
Hakeem Ojo, 42, who has 97 previous offences to his name, searched every room in the house and was caught when police matched blood he left after smashing a window to the national DNA database.
He pleaded guilty at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court to burgling the house (pictured) in Gosberton Road, Balham on March 26, stealing a mobile phone; two Mac laptops; a watch; wedding ring and £25 cash.
The occupier returned home from the dry cleaners at 6:30pm to discover broken glass from a smashed window on the living room floor and evidence of a search.
Items were missing and have never been recovered.
When police tracked Ojo down on April 11 he denied the break-in, insisting he shared a needle with a known burglar when injecting heroin, claiming this is how his blood was at the scene.
The father-of-two, who has spent most of his adult life in custody, eventually confessed, revealing he sold the items to a mini-cab driver to raise cash for drugs.
“Their sanctuary was violated,” Judge Judith Coello told Ojo, after hearing the couple who own the house were left “scared”.
“You have a long and depressing record fuelled by an addiction to class a drugs,” she added. “I have decided to give you one last chance.”
Ojo breach two similar drug rehabilitation orders last year.
He was sentenced to an eighteen-month community order with a drug rehabilitation requirement, plus 100 hours community service work.
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