Burglar who confronted couple in Wareham home given suspended sentence (From Dorset Echo)

Burglar who confronted couple in Wareham home given suspended sentence

12:00pm Sunday 12th February 2012 in News

A BURGLAR who confronted a couple in their home has been given a suspended sentence four-and-a-half years after the offence.

Samuel James Dixon, 26, appeared at Dorchester Crown Court, to be sentenced for a burglary in Wareham in September 2007.

Jennie Rickman said Dixon entered the property of Andrew and Donna Deeming in Coopers Close, Mill Lane, through a window while they were out and when they returned around an hour later they were confronted with him coming out of the property with two rucksacks.

Miss Rickman said that fingerprints were taken at the scene but the culprit was not identified at the time and it was not until March last year that the defendants fingerprints were taken after he was arrested in Manchester and were found to be a match.

She said in interview Dixon told police he had been in the Army at Bovington at the time of the offence and after the death of his mother had gone on a crime spree.

Miss Rickman said: “He admitted he had fallen into criminal behaviour and it must have been him.”

Judge Roger Jarvis sentenced Dixon, of Castle Gardens, Nottingham, to 52 weeks in prison, suspended for a year, and ordered that he carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work.