Three years in prison for bungling burglar

A bungling Black Country burglar dropped a mobile phone at the scene of a crime the day after telling the police that it belonged to him, a judge heard.

Paul Nightingale roared at a woman who saw him trying to break into the house of her neighbour causing over £2,200 damage, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The 29-year-old then allowed the phone to fall out of his pocket as he escaped over the back fence of the house in Wayside Gardens, Willenhall, where he had stolen property from the garage, said prosecutor Mrs Kanwal Juss.

She told the court: "The mobile was traced to him because he had given the number to police the previous day in relation to another matter."

Nightingale fled on a bicycle stolen six days earlier that he dumped round the corner. He then jumped behind the wheel of a Mondeo car left with the keys in the ignition while the owner prepared to go fishing on April 16, the court heard.

He drove off in the saloon, which had been bought just six weeks earlier, and had two mobile phones and £1,500 worth of fishing equipment inside, said Mrs Juss.

Nightingale then rang the owner's wife on one of the phones and told her the vehicle would be returned if she left £300 cash in an envelope taped to a bin outside a specific pub in Willenhall. He was arrested soon afterwards when police spotted him using the mobile and officers found another stolen bicycle when they searched his home.

Nightingale from Queen Elizabeth Avenue, Bentley, who had committed 64 previous offences of dishonesty and had made 27 court appearance in the past 10 years, admitted burglary, attempted burglary and stealing the car.

Mr Lee Masters, defending, said the Mondeo had been taken on the spur of the moment and had been returned. Nightingale had conquered a drug habit but was under the influence of alcohol at the time.

The defendant had been given a community order for handling stolen goods less than three weeks before. Judge John Wait jailed Nightingale for three years and told him: "You have an appalling record."