Thoughtful burglar cleans up after smashing window - leading to arrest - The Leamington Observer

Thoughtful burglar cleans up after smashing window - leading to arrest

Leamington Editorial 17th Jan, 2017   0

AFTER cutting himself when he smashed a window while breaking into a basement flat in Leamington, burglar Justin Theobald thoughtfully cleaned up the broken glass and put it in a bin.

And it was blood on the glass and on a tissue he had used when clearing it up that led to his arrest and appearance at Warwick Crown Court.

The 27 year-old of Kingsway, Leamington, was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to the burglary.

Prosecutor Darron Whitehead said the basement flat was in a large building on Warwick New Road. Theobald smashed a hole in a pane of glass in the sash window and reached inside to unlock it before climbing inside.




He snapped a Nikon camera off its tripod, and stole the camera and some jewellery.

But he had cut himself on the broken glass as he reached through the window, and before leaving he used a tissue to clear up the broken, bloodstained glass and put it in a bin.


The blood on the glass from the bin was tested for DNA which provided a match for Theobald, who had 34 previous convictions for 98 offences and was on licence from a three-year sentence for burglary at the time.

Andrew Tucker, defending, commented Theobald had spent many years throughout his 20s in custody and had become

institutionalised.

“He became stressed and tried to relieve that by the use of what were known then as legal highs. Life on the outside has become more difficult for him than life on the inside.”

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