A burglar who admitted stealing meat from the freezer of a Birmingham home claiming it was because he was hungry, has been jailed for a year and a half for similar offences.
Dishon Burgess, of no fixed address, was traced on CCTV after burgling a house on Crantock Road on Tuesday 31 March. Of all the things the 28-year-old possibly could have taken from someone’s home, he chose a selection of frozen meat worth around £20 and a women’s purple bike.
Burgess then got the burgling bug and entered two properties on Pendragon Road in the early hours of Wednesday 1 April. With his accomplice he stole a Playstation and mixer deck, but then dropped them at the side of the house and left them there.
They later tried their luck at another house on the road by forcing entry to a garage and taking out two mountain bikes. They didn’t manage to take those away either though and they were found in a nearby alleyway after an alert homeowner called the police.
Burgess managed to make his escape that day, but as enquiries were underway for several burglaries of this kind, he was linked to all three after officers trawled through CCTV. Knowing his time was likely to be up after a series of mishaps, he fled to Essex and was arrested in Colchester at the end of April. In police interview, he admitted taking the meat claiming it was fine because he was hungry, but denied stealing a bike.
On Tuesday 23 June at Birmingham Crown Court, Burgess was jailed for 12 months for robbery and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £149 in a separate offence in Erdington in February. He was further jailed for six months to run consecutively for the three burglaries.
PC Mohammed Ali from the Perry Barr and Oscott neighbourhood team, said: “I am glad to see that this man, who clearly had the motivation to continue his run of burglaries, was stopped in his tracks before more homeowners were caused unnecessary stress.
“A year and a half is quite a substantial amount of time behind bars and I hope this offers at least some comfort to the residents in the area that we are committed to tackling such criminals and keeping our neighbourhoods safe.”