Prolific burglar jailed for four years

Drug addict David Fellows broke into homes in and around the Coalpool area of Walsall while occupants slept upstairs, a court heard.

Wolverhampton Crown Court was told the 33-year-old's recent spate of burglaries came a year after he had been released from prison having served a four-year sentence for committing similar offences.

Fellows was told by Judge Michael Dudley that his neighbours would feel safer in their own homes knowing that he had been locked away.

Mr Mark Rees prosecuting, told the court that Fellows' latest crimes fitted in with the general pattern of his offending.

He said: "Fellows has a standard procedure, usually breaking into homes in the early morning.

"The properties he targets are almost always close to where he lives."

The prosecutor told the court that on March 19 Fellows snuck into a home just a few doors down from where he lived at the time on Cannon Street in Coalpool.

"The homeowner had just left to go to work leaving his wife and four children at home," said Mr Rees.

"Fellows clambered over a gate and managed to gain entry to the house through an open window.

"Once inside he searched the downstairs area and took away a handbag containing a gold chain and two bank cards."

The court heard CCTV images taken from a convenience store in Bloxwich later that day showed Fellows making two failed attempts to withdraw £200 from a cash machine.

Mr Rees said while police were attempting to track him down, Fellows struck again at a house in Roebuck Road on March 31.

"Once again the man had left the house to go to work early in the morning.

"His wife heard loud banging coming from downstairs. She went to see what had happened and saw that a window had been smashed and her laptop was missing."

Fellows was later arrested after blood found in the house linked him to the scene.

Mr Oliver Woolhouse, defending, said: "He knows these are serious crimes deserving of prison.

"Behind all of his offending has been an addiction to Class A drugs.

"He has found himself in a vicious cycle, but he understands he has nobody to blame but himself."

Fellows, of Cambridge Walk, Walsall, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary.

He was sent to prison for four years.