Children see burglar take £12k watch in house raid

A MASKED burglar was seen by his victims running through their house before stealing a £12,000 watch, jewellery and £500 in cash.

Steven Lovell, 50, gained access to the seven-bedroomed house in Salford after the family had gone to bed.

Two of the daughters were up talking at around 1.30am in their bedroom when their dad was awoken by his wife who thought someone was in the house.

When he spoke to his daughter, she told him she had seen someone downstairs running in the hallways with a black mask on, Manchester Crown Court heard.

“He then went downstairs and went to the study area, he saw the safe was open and it had been completely emptied,” prosecutor Harriet Tighe said.

“High value items had been stored in there, including a gold Bulgari watch worth £12,000, a bracelet worth £5,000, cufflinks worth £2,000 and £500 in cash.”

The homeowner later established that Lovell, of Trafford, had gained entry through a small window in the playroom.

The next morning, on September 9, he became aware that silver candlesticks had been moved in the dining room.

It appeared the paraffin lid had been taken off in preparation for the candlesticks to be removed, the court heard.

In a victim personal statement read to the court, speaking on behalf of his family, the man said: “My daughter struggles sleeping and she is scared at night.

“She gets flashbacks about seeing this man in a mask.”

Lovell was said to have 40 previous convictions for 80 offences, including eight offences of burglary.

The court heard that on a previous occasion in 2018, he had burgled a house in Broughton and stole high value silver candlesticks.

He was handed six years imprisonment and was on licence for that offence when he committed these offences.

In mitigation, his defence lawyer Rick Holland said: “There is a problem he had with class A drugs and there are problems with addiction.”

Lovell, of Withington Road, was jailed for 49 months.