A burglar broke into a woman's house on new year's eve shortly after calling at her front door with a bogus missing dog story.
Mark Charlton, who has a long history of committing offences of dishonesty, took jewellery including a gold necklace and pearl earrings from his victim’s house after returning to the property and creeping inside. An accomplice who was with him on the night remains at large.
Charlton's advocate said it was accepted his client had carried out a "mean and spiteful offence" against a woman living alone.
Swansea Crown Court heard that around 9pm on December 31 last year Charlton and another man called at a house on Darran Park in Skewen belonging to a woman in her 60s.
Dyfed Thomas, prosecuting, said 52-year-old Charlton began talking to the homeowner about his lost dog and asking her if she had seen it, and the woman then became aware of a second male at the end of her driveway. The court heard the two men were communicating with each other but the woman could not make out what was being said.
The woman was wary of the pair and was initially concerned they were planning to steal her dogs but Charlton left the property, and the householder returned to her evening. However, later that night she heard a banging noise from her kitchen and when she went to investigate she saw a number of items, including an urn of ashes, had been moved, and she realised an intruder had been inside her home. A search of her house revealed jewellery including gold necklaces and a pair pearl earrings were missing along with a number of ornaments.
The prosecutor said the householder called the police, and it later emerged other people living on the same street had also called police that night to report two suspicious men seen loitering in the area. You can read about how police smashed a family-based crime gang which brought misery to families across south Wales by burgling scores of homes and stealing jewellery worth around half-a-million pounds here.
The following day Mark Charlton and his younger brother Craig were arrested, and information disclosed by Craig led officers to finding one of the stolen gold chains among his sibling's possessions.
Mark Charlton, of Penshannel, Skewen, Neath, had previously pleaded guilty to burglary when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 43 previous convictions for 90 offences mainly for dishonesty matters including a string of non-dwelling burglaries beginning in the 1980s.
Dan Griffiths, for Charlton, acknowledged that on any view the new year's eve burglary had been a "mean and spiteful offence". He said the defendant had been out of trouble for a number of years before sliding back into crack cocaine use and committing offences to fund his habit. The advocate added that Charlton had been working in waste management while being held on remand in prison, and had enrolled on an NVQ course in the same.
Recorder Christian Jowett said he was satisfied given the facts of the case and the defendant’s antecedent record that no sentence other than a custodial one was appropriate.
With a one-third discount for this guilty plea Charlton was sentenced to 16 months in prison. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The court heard the defendant’s 50-year-old brother Craig Charlton was also charged with the Skewen burglar but after reviewing the evidence the Crown Prosecution Service had decided there was no a realistic prospect of conviction in his case, and the allegation against him was not pursued.
The identity of the second man seen with Mark Charlton on the night of the burglary remains undetermined.
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