‘Blundering’ burglar raids four properties

"They feel violated and uneasy in their own properties."

Judge Chris Sygrove

A ‘‘blundering’’ spree burglar may have been caught quickly but the impact his crimes have left on his victims has been ongoing, a court heard.

Yanik Gene Tahu Lewis, who previously pleaded guilty to four charges of burglary, was walking along New Plymouth’s Carrington St about 11.10pm on Friday, August 25.

At one property, the 21-year-old walked up the driveway and into the carport.

He opened the door of a car and took printer cartridges and documents out.

As he left the address, he threw the stolen items onto the footpath.

He then walked onto a property five houses down and opened a garage door.

He broke into the car inside the garage and stole a GPS unit, documents and bank cards.

At the third address, the occupant heard Lewis’ attempts to get into her car.

She called police and when she looked out the window she saw Lewis run over to the neighbouring property and try to get into a parked car at that address.

Police located Lewis a short time later and recovered the stolen property.

On Friday, Judge Chris Sygrove told the New Plymouth District Court the offending fitted the description of ‘‘spree’’ burglaries but in no way were they sophisticated or planned.

He said a drunk Lewis was ‘‘sort of blundering along’’ Carrington St, walking from house to house and stealing various items, some of which he ended up dumping on the street.

However, his actions had left the victims ‘‘extremely upset’’, Sygrove said.

‘‘They feel violated and uneasy in their own properties.’’

This extended to some of the victims still being wary about answering the front door, he said.

Lewis was given credit for his early guilty pleas to the charges, along with his age and remorse for what he had done.

He was sentenced to four months’ community detention, with a daily curfew from 7pm to 6am.

He was also given 18 months’ intensive supervision.

By Deena Coster.