Prolific burglar bounced on bed of victim
He struck while she was on holiday
APROLIFIC burglar who ransacked a woman’s house while she was on holiday in Spain has been jailed.
Leon Felton was spotted by a neighbour breaking into the property on Grange Road in Rawtenstall in May this year.
Burnley Crown Court heard how when police arrived they caught Felton ‘jumping up and down’ on the victim’s bed with jewellery in his pockets.
When he was later interviewed by police, Felton said: “Yes. I am very sorry for what I’ve done.”
Father-of-one Felton, who was a ‘third strike burglar’, pleaded guilty to burglary and was jailed for 30 months.
Stephen Parker, prose- cuting, told the court how the victim had left her home ‘locked and secured’ before travelling to Spain and that it was ‘being checked on regularly by a neighbour and her son’.
The prosecutor said a neighbour spotted Felton in the back garden of her home ‘trying to prise a beam away’ from a small window using ‘some form of implement’.
When Felton, 32, spotted the neighbour he quickly ‘bobbed out of the way’ before standing back up again a few minutes later and gaining entry.
Mr Parker said: “The neighbour phoned the police and they arrived shortly afterwards.
“They noticed some items strewn around downstairs and when they went upstairs they found the defendant standing on her bed for whatever reason jumping up and down and jewellery boxes were open.”
A victim impact statement told how the incident came as a ‘surprise’, she was left in ‘quite an emotional state’ after being informed by the police and now sleeps in the spare bedroom.
Keith Harrison, defending, said Felton, of Agincourt Street, Heywood, had previously been jailed in 2011 and 2012 for house burglaries because of his heroin addiction.
He told the court how he was released in 2013 ‘drug free’ and set up a successful electrical company, however this was affected when he was banned for drink driving.
Mr Harrison said Felton went back to drugs ‘for a boost’ after he built up a £30,000 debt and was facing bankruptcy.
He told the court: “This got out of control again and that’s why this burglary was committed.
“He apologises for that and he knows he has let himself down.
“The saving grace is his guilty plea.”