House raider sent to prison

A man who carried out a night time raid on a Cleveleys home has been jailed.
Behind bars: James DolanBehind bars: James Dolan
Behind bars: James Dolan

James Dolan was already on a suspended sentence, imposed just weeks earlier, when he forced entry to the house on Conway Avenue, while the occupant was in bed.

He went on to steal £1,700 of belongings.

Preston Crown Court was told on the same day his crime was discovered, he sold a stolen lap-top to Money Traders in Fleetwood for £300.

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Dolan, of Mount Road, Fleetwood, had pleaded guilty to offences of burglary and fraud.

Lucy Wright, prosecuting, said the man living at the address woke up on the morning of May 29 this year to find that a lock had been forced on a patio door and he had been burgled.

A lap top computer and satellite navigation device had been stolen.

His car keys had been used to open the vehicle and remove a diagnostic reader.

The stolen property was worth £1,718 altogether.

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At 2pm that same day, Dolan took the computer to Money Traders in Fleetwood and sold it for £300.

Another male was with him at the time.

Police managed to recover the stolen laptop and return it to the owner.

Following his arrest, Dolan accepted being with the other man when the computer was sold, but denied being the burglar, or that anything had been stolen by him.

Dolan had 64 previous offences on his record, many of them for dishonesty and not complying with court orders.

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On May 2, he was given a 12-week suspended sentence for offences of harassment and breaching a restraining order. He had no past convictions for house burglary.

Waheed Omran-Baber, defending, said: “He knows there has to be a custodial sentence.

“He accepts his criminality and takes full responsibility for it.

“His inability to cope with drink and drugs has proved quite a significant factor in his offending history.

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“He knows that if he carries on in this life of crime, that the sentences can only get longer.”

Judge Robert Altham gave Dolan 16 months’ prison, with two-and-a-half months on top for breaching his suspended sentence.

He accepted that the defendant was not a “career burglar”.