'It's all too easy' - convicted burglar spells out message for our campaign (From Wiltshire Times)

'It's all too easy' - convicted burglar spells out message for our campaign

2:30pm Friday 3rd July 2009

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A prolific burglar who spent more than six years in prison for an eight-year crime spree in which he targeted dozens of homes has said his job was made easier by people leaving doors and windows unlocked.

The father-of-three from Wootton Bassett, known only as Paul, has moved on from his life of crime in Wiltshire, which began when he was 13.

The reformed burglar puts his past down to a drug habit, peer pressure and the ‘carelessness’ of homeowners who left doors and windows ajar.

His first conviction was in 1992 for taking a motocycle without consent and burglary.

His last conviction was in 2007.

He has a total of 175 convictions to his name, many of which are minor traffic offences and common assualt.

Paul said: “A lot of this type of crime is down to people being careless. A man’s home is his castle and you have to look after that.

“If you keep everything bolted and closed you are less likely to be targeted. People need to be more security conscious.”

After his parents split up when he was 13 Paul started truanting from school and taking drugs, which led to petty crime at first.

By 17, he had started taking ecstasy, which was when he started breaking into houses with friends.

An 11-month spell in a young offenders institute helped deter him from crime and he broke away from his peer group, but after rediscovering drugs, including amphetamines, he would go out burgling alone, driven by the need to fund his habit.

“I would go round the streets dressed up as a salesman and knock on doors looking for a house where the owners were away,” he said.

“As you were going along you would find doors and windows open and no-one home. I would just keep going and keep my eye on that house to make sure no one was going in and then I would go back. It was a total adrenaline rush.

“You know what you are going in for and if you get spotted you know exactly where you are going to run to and I ended up garden hopping sometimes.”

These opportunistic crimes, where Paul stole cash, keys, handbags and mobile phones, continued until his early 20s when he realised that stealing for a living wasn’t “all it was cracked up to be”.

“You get to a point in life where you just want to move on,” Paul said. “At the time I thought it was fun, but now it is not a laughing matter – it was a complete waste of time.

“I wish I had never done it in the first place. I feel like I have thrown away all of those years.”

Today Paul has a very different view of crime and has his own advice for homeowners.

He said: “If people leave things open I do feel sorry for them, but then I feel that they have contributed to it so they have encouraged them to do it in the first place.

“Back then I didn’t worry about people’s feelings and didn’t look back on it, but as I have got older I do think, ‘why have I done that to all of those people?

They have never done anything to me’.

“Those people would still have had their items if it wasn’t for me. They wouldn’t have gone through all of that stress.

“I feel sorry for what I have done in the past and my heart goes out to the people I hurt.”

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