Persistent burglar jailed for three years (From The Oxford Times)

Persistent burglar jailed for three years

7:41pm Sunday 20th December 2009

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A PERSISTENT burglar who raided a school has been jailed for three years.

Raymond Starkings, 21, of Home Close, Carterton, admitted burglary and handling stolen goods at Oxford Crown Court on Friday.

He was also sentenced for another burglary and possessing ketamine — offences he had earlier admitted at Banbury Magistrates’ Court.

Clare Tucker, prosecuting, said Starkings broke into The Batt Primary School, in Marlborough Lane, Witney, in the early hours of December 7 last year and took a laptop valued at £600.

On January 6 this year, he went into Corncroft Guesthouse, in Corn Street, Witney, after asking the occupants if the owner was in.

Once inside, he stole a Compaq laptop worth £400, an Acer laptop worth £600 and a digital camera worth £180 from a room.

None of the items from either burglary have been recovered.

Miss Tucker said the offence of handling stolen goods related to a burglary in Oxford Road, Hampton Poyle, near Kidlington, on September 14, in which a Nintendo Wii, a Hitachi camera, a Canon camera, a laptop, a hard-drive and a DVD rewriter were stolen.

The court heard Starkings and another man had made contact with the photographer owner of the Oxford Road property on the pretext of arranging a photo shoot.

She said: “They agreed to meet him at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford on September 14.

“The victim received a phone call from Starkings saying he was 10 minutes away. He waited for about an hour before he returned home and found a kitchen window had been broken and he had been burgled.”

The items were later found in Starkings’ possession. A 20-year-old man was given a suspended prison sentence for the burglary.

Starkings, who has convictions for 41 previous offences, defended himself. He told the court: “I moved to Germany for a fresh start but my mother came out to visit me and told me the police were looking me.

“I returned to the UK to sort my business out and handed myself in.

“I’ve done a lot of stuff in my past. A lot of crime and a lot of drugs, which is my problem, ie cocaine and ketamine.

“I would like to put everything behind me and I do not intend to do any more criminal activities in the future.”

Starkings asked the judge for a drug-rehabilitation order to be imposed on him once he is released from prison and added: “I’m just trying to sort my life out.”

Judge Patrick Eccles agreed to the request and jailed him for three years, saying: “You are a young man who has a truly dreadful record.”

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