Career burglar with spice habit broke into Wakefield home as occupants slept
Judge told him crime career needs to “come to an end”
A burglar with a long list of previous break-ins has been returned to prison after creeping into a home as the occupants slept.
Stephen Padley targeted the property just yards from his own address in Wakefield, having fallen into smoking the drug, spice, after being released from his last sentence.
The 42-year-old was given another jail term at Leeds Crown Court this week where it was heard he was facing the “three-strike rule” for an astonishing third time.
For burglars who commit three burglaries, the third results in a minimum three-year jail sentence.
Judge Richard Clews told Padley: “It’s time it came to an end. If you continue the sentences are inevitably going to get longer and longer.
“Years earlier it was easier to get away with it, but these days there is very high-quality CCTV in the people’s homes, and you have Ring doorbell footage and the like, so your chances of being caught are much higher.”
It was CCTV that helped convict Padley for his latest burglary, which tracked him leaving the property in the Belle Vue area of Wakefield.
The owners had been woken up in the early hours of April 9 from noises downstairs.
They went to look and found numerous items taken, including a laptop, vacuum cleaner, a PS5, a designer handbag and £100 in cash. The total value of the items taken came to £1,900.
He and an accomplice had broken into the property but were caught on camera shifting the items back and forth to Padley’s own home on Wesley Street. He was also recognised by police.
Officers went to his home and only the Vax cleaner and handbag were recovered.
Padley gave a largely no-comment interview after his arrest.
He has multiple burglaries from 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2023 and 2024. He has received various prison sentences over the years.
Mitigating for his latest break-in, James Littlehales said his best point was his early guilty plea.
He said that after his last release from prison, he was living in a shared house and enticed into smoking the synthetic cannabis drug, spice.
Mr Littlehales said: “I have to admit from the outset this his record his quite atrocious.
“He apologises to the complainant, he had tried to go straight and failed, he accepts that.”
Judge Clews jailed Padley for three years and six months.