Prison term for man who broke into Bury St Edmunds home while owners were on holiday
Ipswich Crown Court. Picture: GREGG BROWN - Credit: Gregg Brown
A “career criminal” who broke into a house in Bury St Edmunds while the owners were on holiday has been jailed for more than two years.
Sentencing Justin Bond to 876 days’ imprisonment, Judge John Devaux said the sole aim of his “utterly selfish existence” was feeding his drug addiction.
Michael Crimp, prosecuting at Ipswich Crown Court, said the owners of the house in Cullum Road, Bury St Edmunds, were on holiday when they were told about the burglary on July 21 by their daughter.
They returned home the following day and found a broken window in the kitchen and a trail of blood in the house.
Drawers had been opened and rifled through and the only thing found to be missing was an electronic car key fob valued at £1,000.
Bond was arrested after his DNA was found on a garden ornament which had been used to smash the window.
Bond, 45, of Tayfen Road, Bury St Edmunds, admitted burglary and criminal damage.
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He denied a charge of attempted burglary and this was ordered to be left on the court file.
Mr Crimp said that Bond fell foul of the “three strikes” legislation which required the court to pass a minimum sentence of three years imprisonment, less credit for guilty plea, for burglars who committed three or more burglaries.
The court heard that on July 25 an 87-year-old woman was at her home in Hardwick Lane, Bury St Edmunds, during the afternoon when she heard a noise.
She went into her hallway and found broken glass from a window adjacent to the front door and saw Bond looking through a hole in the window.
Bond said he was lost and claimed he had banged on the door and it had broken.
The police attended and they found Bond nearby with a cut on his hand.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said she had been left “upset, scared and nervous” as a result of the incident and had difficulty sleeping.
Andrew Shaw, for Bond, said his client’s life had been blighted by class A drugs.
“He used crack cocaine and heroin and was spending up to £100 a day,” said Mr Shaw.
