Two serial burglars have been jailed after leaving an elderly York couple “quaking in their beds” and targeting a prestigious private school.
Kevin Baker, 36, and Billy Johnson, 28, crept into the couple’s home near Shipton in the early hours of the morning and stole the keys to their Nissan Qashqai while they were asleep in bed, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Rob Galley said the burglars broke into the property – in the Shipton Road area between Rawcliffe and Clifton Park – through an unlocked conservatory door in the early hours of 12 October.
They stole a bundle of keys, including those to the couple’s Nissan car, and drove off in the vehicle, only to be stopped by police just after 3am.
Police found wire cutters and a torch inside the vehicle which was driven by Baker.
Six days earlier, they broke into a shed at St Peter’s School, stealing items of an unknown value including bottles of alcohol which had been stored for a special event at the school. They were captured on the school’s CCTV system.
Baker and Johnson were each charged with two counts of burglary and stealing the elderly couple’s vehicle. Baker was also charged with going equipped for theft and driving without a licence or insurance.
They ultimately admitted all the offences and appeared for sentence on Wednesday (10 December) after being remanded in custody.
Prosecuting barrister Mr Galley read out a victim statement from the elderly man burgled on 12 October who said the total cost of replacing all the stolen keys and damaged locks was £850.
The couple, who were in their 70s, had since suffered from “mental distress”, knowing that the intruders had rifled through their belongings while they slept upstairs.
The elderly victim said they found this extremely upsetting and he now had to arrange for someone to look after his 72-year-old wife when he went on walking holidays.
“We’ve had nightmares since the event,” he added. “Our sleep is interrupted by the slightest disturbance.”
Mr Galley said the couple lived in a quiet residential area on the outskirts of York and it had been their home for 26 years.
The court heard that Baker, from York but of no fixed address, had 16 previous convictions for 33 offences including theft and three burglaries.
Johnson, also from York but of no fixed abode, had 40 previous offences on his record including shoplifting and two burglaries, including one earlier this year which resulted in an 18-week prison sentence.
Defence barrister Leila Taleb, representing both defendants, said they had burgled the couple’s home and the school outbuilding to fund their drug habits.
She said that Baker, a father-of-five, had been homeless for ten years which had resulted in a “drug-fuelled, chaotic lifestyle”.
Johnson, a former labourer, started taking drugs in his late teens “and that’s exactly when this sort of offending started”.
She said that, like his co-defendant, Johnson was homeless at the time of the burglaries.
Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, told the recidivist pair: “You were out and about at night, tooled up with a torch and wire cutters.
“There has been a substantial emotional impact on the victims. They can’t sleep properly at night. The gentleman is worried about leaving his wife alone. She is worried about being left alone.”
The judge said any mitigation for the defendants’ penurious existence was overridden by “my concern about two pensioners who are quaking in their beds at night; two pensioners who now start at every noise in the night, as most burglary victims do”.
He added: “People who are in the twilight of their lives are entitled to live in peace and dignity and not have their homes invaded by feckless thieves like you two.”
He slammed the criminal pair who had failed to comply with community sentences in the past and “just carried on committing crime”.
They were each jailed for 20 months but were told they would serve less than half that time behind bars before being released on prison licence.
