Four men sentenced after series of house and shop burglaries across Notts

Four men have been convicted for their part in a series of house and shop burglaries across Notts and Leicestershire.

All four admitted crimes involving the thefts of vehicles and cigarettes.

Christopher Hall, aged 19, of Ennis Close in Derby, appeared at Leicester Crown Court on Friday 30 November 2012 charged with eight burglary and theft offences, and admitted a further two offences to be taken into consideration by the judge.

He was sentenced to three years, nine months behind bars.

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Nathan Morgan, aged 18, of Chatham Court in Newark, was charged with four burglary and theft offences, as well as the assault of a Detention Officer while in police custody.

He was given one year and nine months in jail.

Shaun Watt, aged 19, of Lombard Street in Newark, was charged with five burglary and theft offences.

He received one year, three months jail time.

Christopher Wilson, aged 33, of Wolsey Road in Newark, was charged with two shop burglaries involving cigarettes in Leicestershire.

He was sent to jail for 12 months.

The offences were committed in June and July this year and were initially identified by private CCTV at the house they broke into in Costock. They were then linked to the other crimes by their methods and use of the same stolen vehicles.

Their crime spree came to an abrupt end in Leicestershire on 7 July when they were arrested shortly after their latest shop burglary.

They had been pictured on CCTV during a burglary at the One-Stop shop in Newark and then cigarettes from this incident were found in the boot of a stolen vehicle.

Nottinghamshire Police has been leading the region in the investigation of a spate of cross-border incidents in which cars are being stolen from houses and then used as getaway cars in shop burglaries targeting cigarettes.

More than 50 cigarette burglaries have been recorded across Nottinghamshire since the beginning of March 2012.

Detective Inspector Kev Broadhead, who is leading the operation, said: “We launched Operation Donjon to combat this type of crime, which is effecting both residents and the business community.

“Hall was our number one target and his arrest was a massive breakthrough in the inquiry. Since the arrests of all four men, the number of incidents of this kind have decreased dramatically.

“But while this result means they are now out of the equation, there are others and we will now simply move down to the next target on our list.”

Under the operation, Notts Police introduced a number of tactics to tackle the crimes, including offering advice to victims on ways to improve their security.

A number of ‘capture shops’ have also been established. These could be anywhere in Nottinghamshire and they are fitted with recording equipment and forensically marked property.