A serial burglar has been jailed for six years after being caught by DNA from a cigarette end which he dropped on his victim’s bedroom floor.
Shane Speed was branded as a career criminal by a judge who heard he had spent his entire adult life breaking into other people’s homes.
Speed left two families traumatised after breaking into their homes in Dawlish at a time when he was homeless and sleeping on the beach.
The daughter of one victim was so frightened after his raid she could not go upstairs on her own and another homeowner who came face to face with the intruder, was frightened of sleeping in her own bed.
Speed had been set up in state-subsidised accommodation in Dawlish after being released from jail last summer but returned to crime after being evicted for failing to pay his portion of the rent.
He broke into two family homes in the space of three weeks, stealing more than £10,000 of jewellery in the second raid, Exeter Crown Court was told.
Speed, whose last address was Elm Grove Road, Dawlish, admitted two burglaries and was jailed for six years by Judge Graham Cottle. He has 17 previous convictions for burglary.
He told him: ’The victims were terrified. That is what happens to the occupants of the houses you burgle, as you have done all your life. That is why these offences are so serious.
’You are a career burglar who has made it your life’s work to break into other people’s homes. The sentences are going to get longer and longer unless you find a way of avoiding offending.
’The sentencing guidelines are simply not designed to deal with cases of this sort.’
Mr David Bowen, prosecuting, said Speed broke into homes at Plantation Terrace and West Cliff Road, Dawlish, on February 3 and 23.
He stole two necklaces at the first worth £200 and jewellery and valuables worth at least £10,000 in the second, where the owner returned to find him in her home.
Mr Bowen said: ’He ran away with the stolen goods in a rucksack. None were recovered. A cigarette end was found in the bedroom. The owner did not smoke so it was tested and his DNA was traced.’
Victim impact statements from the homeowners said they were sick with worry and fear. One had a young daughter who was too frightened to go upstairs alone.
The other spent several nights in her spare room with her partner sleeping downstairs because she could not cope with the thought that Speed had been in her bedroom.
Mr Jeffrey Segan, mitigating, said Speed had been found accommodation with subsidised rent in Dawlish after his release and had done well for several months.
He said: ’He was eventually unable to keep the accommodation and was evicted. He was living rough and sleeping on the beach with all his clothes and toiletries in two rucksacks. His circumstances cause him to revert to the regular pattern of behaviour.’
Speed’s previous sentence of four years was imposed at the same court in August 2013 for a series of raids in Plymouth, Newton Abbot, and Torbay.
He was only caught because he used his own name when he sold a stolen heirloom to a pawn shop. He had only been out of prison for a few weeks and had been living at a hostel in Plymouth.
The raids were at Hillbrook Road, Totnes; Clifton Place, Plymouth; Abbotsbury Road, Newton Abbot; Warbro Road, Torquay; and Marine Drive, Paignton.