Burglar wasted no time in using bank cards he stole in city raid

JUST SEVEN MINUTES ELAPSED BEFORE HE WAS BUYING GOODS

A FAST-ACTING house burglar used a stolen bank card within seven minutes of taking it from a student house, a court heard.

Abdi Gani Mohammad, 27, wasted no time after entering the property in Highfield Street, Highfields, Leicester, where he helped himself to a debit card in a communal lounge.

He also sneaked into a bedroom and stole two more bank cards, along with £400 in cash and a mobile phone.

Mohammad, of Birstow Crescent, Mowmacre Hill, Leicester, was jailed for two years.

Andrea Lock, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court that within just seven minutes of a security camera filming him leaving the property, shared by seven young people, he was at the nearby 24-hour St Peter’s Service Station, in St Peter’s Road, buying £11.89 worth of items.

Later that day he used another of the stolen cards to pay for £38.72 of goods at a shop in Evington Road.

The bank cards were quickly passed on to others who also fraudulently used them in and around the city. Mohammad, admit- ted breaking into the property at 5.45am on Saturday, December 12.

Ms Lock said: “It’s not clear whether any students were in the house at the time or if someone was asleep in the bedroom that he entered.” No-one appeared to have been disturbed by him. Mohammad pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulently using bank cards stolen from the house.

He also admitted an earlier burglary, with intent to steal, at an unoccupied flat under renovation in Loughborough Road, in the city, on February 19 last year - when nothing was taken.

The court heard that Mohammad’s 29 previous convictions, all between May 2017 and June 2020, included a house burglary and “other offences of dishonesty”.

Michael Garvey, mitigating for Mohammad, said: “On most of the occasions in the past he’s been in trouble with others.

“He could have been operating with others at their direction or to impress them, which causes his family great concern.”

He said that his family wanted him “to keep away from these other people”.

Sentencing, Recorder Jason MacAdam said Mohammad deliberately targeted the student house during the hours of darkness, adding: “The aggravating feature is the use of the bank cards that were also passed on to others. I accept it may be you were taken advantage of by others or committed crime to impress them.”

The aggravating feature is the use of the bank cards that were also passed to others

Recorder Jason MacAdam