A SERIAL burglar who asked a judge to punish him for more than 30 offences has been jailed for four years and eight months.

Michael Sestanovich was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to stealing a car and other items from a home in Bicester.

The 32-year-old also asked for 33 other offences, including 23 burglaries, committed in the past 11 years to be taken into consideration before his punishment was decided by Judge Zoe Smith.

Prosecuting, John Law told the court Sestanovich walked into the unlocked New Street home on September 18 at 2.30am and stole the keys to the occupants’ BMW X3 and a bag of items including an iPhone, camera including their recent honeymoon photographs, a purse and a laptop.

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He was heard by the couple in the house as he drove off in the vehicle and was found later in the morning by police who tracked him down in Bicester using Apple’s Find My iPhone software.

Sestanovich, of Purslane Drive in Bicester, was arrested and everything apart from the purse was recovered, with the car having minor damage.

He told officers he could not remember what happened as he had been drinking and taking prescription drugs, while he also had problems with other drugs, including crack cocaine and heroin.

In a statement read out in court by the male victim, he said his wife had changed from being a positive person into one who was regularly nervous.

Stuart Matthews, defending, said Sestanovich, who appeared via video link from Bullingdon Prison, had shown remorse and was relieved to get the other crimes off his chest.

He said his drug use had made his problems worse and his parents were concerned his mental health had deteriorated.

Sestanovich wrote a letter to the judge explaining how he was sorry for his actions and apologised to his parents.

Judge Smith said: “It’s rather a tragedy this case because he writes extremely well.

“He’s clearly intelligent and literate. One wonders why he’s spent all these years going around in a fog, which it must have been.”

Sestanovich was given four years in prison for the string of burglaries and eight months for aggravated vehicle taking, running consecutively.

He was also disqualified from driving for 30 months and ordered to pay a victims’ surcharge of £120.

 

 

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