Student-homes burglar in Leeds left footprint as he stole TV, car keys and Lego
A serial burglar who broke into student homes was caught after leaving fingerprints and a footprint behind.
Police caught up with Simon Connolly just hours after the two break-ins in the Hyde Park area.
He had only been released weeks before from a previous sentence for burglary and has six previous convictions for the same offence.
Leeds Crown Court heard that he broke into the first home on Thornville Avenue in the early hours of February 14 this year while the occupants were upstairs playing computer games.
They only noticed later than the front door was ajar, and items were missing including car keys, a mobile phone and a wallet containing bank and credit cards.
Around 90 minutes later he forced his way into another student home on Brudenell Road. One occupant heard the banging of doors but assumed it was her housemate.
The next morning they found the washing had been pulled from the washing machine and strewn across the floor.
They then found the LG TV was missing from the front room, along with two boxes of Lego and bottles of vodka. They found the door had been forced open, along with a window.
Officers later found the fingerprints and the footprint. Connolly was arrested later that day.
He was wearing the same trainers from the print, and had £80 worth of crack cocaine on him.
A find-my-device app also showed the mobile he had taken in the first burglar was at his nearby address A search also found the TV and the car keys.
The 44-year-old denied the burglaries during his police interview claiming someone had left the items at his home.
He later admitted two counts of burglary and one of possession of Class A drugs.
He also admitted theft and assault from an incident in Morrisons on Selby Road, Leeds, on November 24 last year when an employee tried to stop him stealing chocolate.
Connolly, now of no fixed address, has 28 previous convictions for 63 offences and has received several jail sentences for burglary.
Mitigating, Sean Smith said Connolly had a “significant problem with drugs throughout his life” and it was the “causation of all his offending”.
But having been held on remand in HMP Lincoln he said Connolly was now on a methadone programme.
He added: “He accepts that he can’t repeat this cycle. He is at an age that he needs to sort himself out and can’t keep coming back to prison.”
Judge Kate Rayfield jailed him for three years and told him: “You have a long record for theft-related offending.
“You know it has to be an immediate custodial sentence. This has become planned and repeated offending.
“You went out in the early hours targeting student accommodation.”