A MAN who burgled a Dorset home and tried to sell his ill-gotten gains later that day was tracked through a laptop he had stolen.

Jason Charles, aged 50, raided a converted farmhouse in Morden, Purbeck, on May 18 by breaking the glass in a kitchen window.

An untidy search of the address in Lower Street followed, with multiple items taken, including computer and camera equipment worth thousands of pounds.

The defendant was discovered as the MacBook he took had a tracker, which allowed the victim to see where it had gone.

Police attempted to apprehend Charles while he was driving his car but the pursuit was called off due to the danger to members of the public.

Later that day Charles arranged to meet three people in a Poole car park with an intention of selling some of the electrical items he had stolen.

An altercation ensued, with the defendant assaulting each of them and damaging the bodywork of a car which belonged to one of the group.

Charles was arrested at his home address three days later.

Dorset Echo:

Bournemouth Crown Court heard that nine days earlier the offender had attempted to burgle an address in Canford Cliffs Road, Poole, when the occupant was out.

Prosecuting, Mike Mason said there was damage to the front door and a window was wide open but nothing had been taken.

The defendant was identified from CCTV as driving a car parked near the property on the day in question.

Charles pleaded guilty to attempted burglary, burglary, criminal damage and three counts of assault by beating. He also asked sentencing judge Recorder Malcolm Gibney to take into consideration four further burglaries.

Lucy Conroy, mitigating, said the defendant had used his time remanded in custody well.

Ms Conroy said the death of his father appeared to be “the spiral which started his descent and his addiction difficulties”.

Dorset Echo:

She confirmed her client, who had 14 previous convictions for 68 offences, was a three-strike domestic burglar, which required a minimum term of three years’ imprisonment to be imposed.

Recorder Gibney said all the offences involved the defendant trying to acquire items to sell them on to fund his crack cocaine addiction.

He accepted Charles was now “a very different man” having gone clean from drugs.

“When you are offending you do immense damage to people’s lives,” the judge told Charles.

Dorset Echo:

Recorder Gibney added: “The nature of the offending and the gravity of it taken together with the antecedent history is such that the sentence I must impose is higher than the three-strike minimum.

Charles was jailed for five years and five months at the Bournemouth Crown Court hearing on October 25.

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