Burglar jailed for four years (From Croydon Guardian)

Burglar Christopher Flanagan jailed for four years

7:20am Wednesday 12th September 2012 in News

A burglar has been jailed for four years after being found guilty of burglary.

Christopher Flanagan of Beverstone Road, Brixton, was convicted at Croydon Crown Court on September 6.

The 37-year-old burgled a residential address in London Road, at about 3pm on March 9.

During the burglary he was disturbed by one of the occupants and made off from the building.

He was seen to by a witness to get away on a motorbike with cash and a laptop stolen from the address.

Forensic officers recovered a yellow duster from the property. The cloth was sent for forensic analysis and DNA found on the item was identified as Flanagan's.

Although the motorbike on which he left the scene wasn't registered to Flanagan, officers from Croydon's Crime Squad were able to trace the bike to an address he was linked to.

Flanagan refused to answer questions following his arrest and officers were unable to recover the stolen laptop.

However, evidence presented to the jury showing an object inside the burgled address had Flanagan's DNA on it, in addition to the bike involved being strongly linked with him and character evidence from the prosecution showing Flanagan had a history of committing burglary, all led to him being found guilty.

Acting Detective Sergeant Dominic Doyle from Croydon CID said: "This was a great result with a well-known burglar put behind bars for a long time.

"The witness was not able to identify Flanagan, but with the evidence linking him to the bike and the duster inside the address, as well as his character history it was enough for the jury to find him guilty."