Jailed burglar says sorry (From Gazette Series)

Jailed burglar says sorry

AN ELDERLY couple, shocked to arrive home and find their house being burgled have had an apology from one of the intruders.

Shane Jay, 30, wrote to pensioners Ken and Sylvia Brown, saying: "I am not your average scumbag or drug addict. I am just a bloke who has been institutionalised and sent down the wrong paths in life."

Gloucester Crown Court was told last Thursday Mr and Mrs Brown, from Stancombe, got back in November last year to find a stolen Ford Escort outside. As Mr Brown was checking around the back of the cottage he heard his wife scream.

Nick Fridd, prosecuting, said she had seen a man leaving the conservatory, run to the couple's Fiesta car and jump in. He had then driven it down towards their gateway, which was closed. The driver then jumped out and threatened Mr Brown with a knife to force him to open the gate.

Mr Fridd said the Crown accepted Jay's claim that it was not he who ran out of the house, drove the car, or used the knife. He insisted he was looking in outbuildings at the time and that he knew nothing about it.

However, neither Mr nor Mrs Brown had seen any sign of anyone else at their property and Mrs Brown later picked out Jay on an identification parade. Shortly after the burglary a PC on patrol at Berkeley Heath had seen Jay near the stolen Fiesta and arrested him. Property from the cottage was found nearby.

Jay, formerly of Bristol, but now of no fixed address, had admitted breaking into and stealing Queen Victoria coins and Stroud District Council tokens, taking a car without consent, driving while disqualified, allowing himself to be carried in another car taken without consent in Bristol, and failing to surrender to bail in March.

Giles Nelson, defending, said Jay - who has changed his name to Robert Fraser - did not want a pre-sentence report by the probation service because he was realistic enough to know a prison term was inevitable.

Ironically, added Mr Nelson, it was because Jay had himself been burgled last November he committed the offence, using a strange logic which made him feel he should try to recoup his own loss.

Jay was jailed for a total of two and a half years.