Slough Burglar sentenced to three years in prison
A 24-year-old man from the Slough area was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on 24 April to three years in prison after pleading guilty to three burglaries.
The judge sentenced Michael John Joseph Reardon, of Eltham Avenue, Cippenham, Slough to three years for each of two burglaries and two years for the third burglary, all sentences to run concurrently.
The burglaries took place over a period of five weeks in the Cippenham area of Slough. On Monday 27 August 2007, a resident in Bowyer Drive returned home to find that a burglar had smashed a window in the kitchen door with a brick and searched the house, stealing jewellery, an X-Box and a laptop.
On Sunday 30 September 2007, an alarm sounded at Cippenham Junior School, alerting staff to a break in at the premises. The Slough school fence had been damaged, rear doors forced and internal doors smashed as burglars made their way to a classroom containing computer equipment. A locked metal cabinet had been broken open and laptops stolen to the value of approximately £5,200.
On Wednesday 3 October 2007, a householder in Elmshott Lane returned home to find that the front door had been forced open and a flat screen TV stolen.
Evidence presented to the court included CCTV footage which clearly showed Reardon kicking open a door at one of the burgled properties, as well as Reardon’s DNA which was found after forensic examination of the crime scenes.
Det Con Sally Spencer, who investigated the incidents, said: “Reardon committed this series of offences in the area around his home in Cippenham, which at the time affected the community quite badly. His crimes caused considerable distress to the owners, some of whom had the personal space of their own homes invaded and the contents ransacked. The local school lost vital learning resources for young children, although they clearly did their best to secure the equipment.”
Thames Valley Police ~ Slough