Serial burglar from Northampton sentenced to 30 months after fraud-filled 'shopping spree'

A serial burglar from Northampton has been given 30 months in jail after a fraud-filled 'shopping spree' paid for with stolen bank cards and the theft of power tools from a garage.

Kieran Stuart Robert Long, aged 37, of Balfour Close, Northampton, was sentenced for the offences relating to the bank cards.

He was also sentenced, alongside Wayne John Brown, aged 49, of Kingsland Avenue, Northampton, at Northampton Crown Court on Tuesday (February 8) for stealing power tools from a garage.

Long himself was further charged with the theft of four bank cards stolen from a woman's kitchen, whom he then defrauded by buying almost £200 worth of goods.

Henry Gordon, prosecuting, said: "In the early evening of June 11, 2021, the woman was in her living room with her partner when she got a message from her bank asking if she had paid for something. She in fact had assumed that this was a scam.

"But when she later went downstairs to get her card from the kitchen, she found that her handbag was missing. Whoever had stolen it had entered through the back door of the house and taken the handbag, which contained four separate bank cards.

"CCTV was obtained which showed the burglar walking up the road after the burglary that evening, carrying the handbag. By his plea, Mr Long must have come into possession of her handbag soon after that.

"The victim discovered that two of her cards had been used in local convenience stores, wherein this defendant went on a mini shopping spree using her contactless bank cards, with the first transaction taking place at around 7.23pm that evening."

In total, Long spent 'just shy of £190' over nine attempted transactions on things including tobacco. Eight of the nine were successful

Long tried to claim that a 'friend called Jay' had lent him the cards to buy the goods and had 'no idea' they were stolen. But eventually he changed his plea to guilty.

Long was then jointly sentenced with Brown for a further burglary of another man's power tools from a garage on August 7, 2021. These the man relied upon to earn a living.

This was not the pair's first burglary together, as previous convictions prove they did similar things together on at least one occasion prior.

Mr Gordon read: "Building work was being done on the complainant's garage in Northampton. On the night of August 6 the door had been chained shut.

"The door that had been padlocked shut the previous night was found the next day nearly split in half. Needless to say, the power tools inside had been taken.

"CCTV was again retrieved from the property which showed these two defendants walking away from the property shortly after 7am. They were carrying the tool box the power tools had been stored in."

To add to the offending's severity, Long was already on a suspended prison sentence for three previous burglaries up to March 2019 as well as handling stolen goods.

Brown also had a long history of similar offences. However his had a 'substantial gap' of twelve years between an offence in 2001 and further traffic offences in 2013-15. This he convinced the Judge was due to getting off drugs and his subsequent reoffending was due to falling back to old habits.

Judge Lucking QC, presiding, said in sentencing: "Mr Long, your repeated attempted and successful uses of the bank cards, resulting in the need to contact the bank, cancel the cards, wait for replacements to arrive represents a substantial source of inconvenience.

"Mr Brown, you have impressed the probation service with the work you have done to address your addiction. It is clear that when you are not addicted to drugs, you are actually a very hard worker.

"There is a realistic prospect of you rehabilitation."

Long was sentenced to 30 months in total, ten of which was for the use of the bank cards.

Meanwhile Brown was given 12 months suspended for two years, as well as paying £10 per week to compensate the owner of the power tools to the tune of £1,030.

Long was spared this sentence as it was not deemed possible for a serving prisoner to make such payments.