October 2, 2017 12.46 pm This story is over 76 months old

Prolific burglar smashed into Skegness woman’s home while she was having job interview

He pleaded guilty.

A “three strikes burglar” who broke in to a woman’s home while she was at a job interview has been jailed for two years and five months.

Barry Wright, 47, escaped with an iPad and cash after smashing his way in to a flat on Wainfleet Road, Skegness, during broad daylight.

Lincoln Crown Court heard the 26-year-old woman who lived in the flat was attending a job interview at a fast food outlet at the time of the break-in.

Phil Howes, prosecuting, said the woman had been saving £320 in a tin which she had never seen again following the burglary.

Mr Howes told the court a neighbour raised the alarm after following Wright from the scene and spotting a smashed panel in the woman’s door.

The court was told Wright had previous convictions for burglary in 1992, 2008 and 2012 which qualified him for an automatic three year jail sentence.

Wright, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to a single charge of burglary on September 2, this year.

Jon Dee, mitigating, told the court Wright carried out the burglary to pay off a debt.

Mr Dee said: “This was an ‘in and out’ burglary. The reason from his previous convictions is obvious. For decades he has suffered from addictions.”

Recorder Helen Malcolm QC told Wright she had no choice but to impose an automatic jail sentence on him with five months taken off for his guilty plea.

The Recorder told Wright: “You have a bad record. Your guilty plea is your only mitigation.”