Burglar caught as victim names car by engine sound
A BURGLARY victim recog- nised the make and model of the intruder’s getaway car from the sound of its engine, enabling police to trace him.
Although the homeowner, who is a car industry expert, did not see the vehicle, he told police he believed the thief and his accomplice fled in a Vauxhall 1.6 diesel.
Officers found the exact make and model near Michael McDonagh’s home 12 miles away.
The 19-year-old’s fingerprints were found on the car and McDonagh was arrested. After his arrest, the homeowner picked him out of an ID parade and he admitted burglary.
Tragically, the unnamed victim blames the trauma of the break-in for his pregnant wife suffering a miscarriage the next day, the court was told.
McDonagh broke into the couple’s home in Warwick at 3am on January 13 last year, Warwick Crown Court heard.
The wife was alone in bed at the time and her husband returned home to find McDonagh ransacking the house. As the man took hold of him, McDonagh shouted to an accomplice out of the window: ‘Help, he’s got me!’
The prosecution said a voice from outside responded: ‘Stab him then, f****** stab him.’ The householder let him go and he escaped with an Armani watch and a handbag containing £140 in cash and gift cards.
McDonagh, from Coventry, also admitted a later offence of possessing an offensive weapon, after confronting a young man with a hammer while on bail for the burglary.
Julian Lynch, defending, said: ‘He’s a young, relatively vulnerable man. He was with some older males. He was out with them in their car and he was pushed into it by them.’
Imposing a 12-month community order, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said: ‘ The appropriate sentence for the burglary would have been 27 months. If you breach this order, if you steal so much as a packet of Polos from a shop, you will come back here. If I see you again, that is the sentence I will pass.’
Wife miscarried after trauma