Sheffield Crown Court: Career criminal burgled two homes just weeks after being released from latest sentence

Andrew Stewart had been free for just 21 days when he broke into a house on Town Moor Avenue, Town Moor, Doncaster, on November 26 last year, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Prosecuting barrister, Richard Sheldon, told a hearing held on March 1 how Stewart, aged 37, gained access to the property by ‘smashing a ground floor window’.

Once inside, Stewart searched the rooms of the house, including those belonging to the children who live there, and proceeded to steal items worth an estimated £3,000.

“Officers attended the address and found on the bed an area of staining. It was scientifically tested, and the DNA was matched to the defendant,” Mr Sheldon said.

In a statement to the court, the occupier of the house said the burglary had left her feeling ‘scared,’ and she described how her children mention it ‘a lot’.

She said she was now considering moving as a result of Stewart’s offending.

Just three weeks later, Stewart struck again at a property in Lonsdale Avenue, Town Moor.

Mr Sheldon said the occupier left the house at 9.30am on the morning of December 17 last year, and returned just half an hour later to find he had been burgled.

On this occasion, Stewart gained access by breaking a patio door, and Mr Sheldon said CCTV footage captured Stewart ‘entering the rear garden’.

“Ironically, he was wearing a high-vis waistcoat,” Mr Sheldon said.

The occupier initially believed that high value items had been stolen, but later found that Stewart had taken just £4 from his property, the court heard.

Stewart, who has an extensive record of 89 offences from 29 convictions, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary at an earlier hearing.

Defending, Cheryl Dudley, said Stewart, of Britain House, Wheatley had been given a ‘meagre’ amount of money on his release from prison, most of which had to be spent on having food delivered because of having Covid.

“He used it up very quickly,” she said.

She told the court that Stewart was still grieving the loss of his daughter, who died while in foster care four years ago, and said that despite having nothing to do with her death, social services had separated him from his other children as a consequence.

Recorder Thomas Moran sentenced Stewart to 876 days in prison.

Judges are required to sentence ‘third strike’ burglars like Stewart to a minimum of three years in prison, but Recorder Moran was able to reduce Stewart’s sentence by 20 per cent for his guilty plea.