A BURGLAR who raided two homes in Stafford, stealing over £11,000 worth of property, has been jailed for three years.
One of the victims, pensioner Maureen Grocott lost treasured jewellery and gifts from her childhood when her bungalow in Crab Lane was broken into.
On the same night, January 23, a house in Stone Road was burgled by Romanian national Domitru Marinescu, Stafford Crown Court heard.
Janet Lawton and her ten-year-old daughter came home to find their patio doors had been forced and property, including a laptop computer, totalling more than £1,200 missing.
Two days later the defendant also burgled a house in Crewe, but stole nothing.
Pat Sullivan, prosecuting, said Marinescu was traced through his DNA found on screwdrivers used in the Stafford break-ins and left behind in the properties. A speck of his blood was found in the house in Primrose Avenue, Crewe.
Marinescu, aged 22, of Grassmere Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, admitted three charges of burglary.
Judge Simon Tonking told him: “That ten-year-old girl has been left terrified by what you did. You took jewellery valuable not only in monetary terms but owned by the person from her childhood and of enormous sentimental value.” Mr Sullivan said Mrs Grocott had lost “a myriad of cherished items” including an RAF ring and cufflinks and diamond rings worth over £2,000. In all she had lost property worth in ecxess of £10,000.
Her patio doors had been forced and her bedroom ransacked.
In a victim impact statement she said the burglary had “left her feeling vulnerable and sick in her own home.” Mr Wykeham Garsia, defending, said Marinescu came to Britain four years ago with his partner hoping for a better life, but it hadn’t worked out that way.
His partner had left him and gone back to Romania with their young son.
He committed the burglaries at the insistence of someone who offered to help him get to the Romanian embassy in London.
He bought a set of screwdrivers and used them.
