Judge tells burglar to give up crime - because he's not very good at it! - The Leamington Observer

Judge tells burglar to give up crime - because he's not very good at it!

Leamington Editorial 20th Apr, 2019   0

A THIEF who led police on a horrific motorway chase after breaking into a secluded house and taking the owner’s Porsche has been told to give up crime – because he’s not very good at it.

Colin Smith was jailed for a total of six years after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to burgling the house in Ligthhorne Road, Kineton, theft and dangerous driving.

The 46-year-old, who had travelled 85 miles from his home in Feltham, Middlesex, to carry out the planned raid, was also banned from driving for eight years.

Prosecutor Tom Schofield said mid afternoon on Saturday February 23, a couple were at their detached home in Lighthorne Road when they heard a noise.




They went to check, and found Smith in the dining room of the house, which is set in three acres of land and is not visible from the road.

He ran out with the key to the couple’s Porche Cayenne, chased by the owner.


Smith ran to the car and locked himself in as the owner tried to smash the window to grab the key, without success, as Smith started the car and sped away.

Fifteen minutes later the Porsche activated an ANPR camera as it headed south along the M40, so police traffic officers were alerted, as was a police helicopter.

There followed a pursuit lasting nearly 25 minutes at speeds in excess of 115mph, stages of which were captured by cameras in the helicopter, on motorway gantries and in police cars.

He was eventually brought to a stop by a rolling block near to junction 2 of the motorway, where the police had to break into the car to get him out.

Smith, who had 31 previous convictions for 115 offences including domestic burglaries and fraud, tested positive for cocaine, but made no comment when he was interviewed.

Nick Devine, defending, said the burglary was prompted as a result of running up a drugs debt shortly after his release from his last prison sentence.

Jailing Smith, Judge Peter Cooke told him: “It is amazing that with 31 convictions for 115 offences it has not dawned on you that you’re not very good at crime.”

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