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A man from Ipswich has been jailed for over two years for burglary offences in the town.
34 year old John Smith of Portman Road in the town was jailed for 27 months after he pleaded guilty yesterday (Thur 18 January) at Ipswich Crown Court.
He was arrested and subsequently charged with two attempted burglaries that took place at properties in Henley Road overnight between 3 and 4 February last year.
Following this charge and his guilty plea, Smith chose to work with the Operation Converter team and had a further eight other offences taken into consideration. These included two burglaries in October at properties in Henley Road, one in Dalton Road in September, one on Greenways Close in September, one on North Close in September, one on Burlington Road in September an incident of theft at a store on London Road in August and a burglary on Henniker Road in October. In these incidents various items including jewellery, watches and in one case, antiques were stolen.
Det Sgt Nathan Hails from Ipswich CID said: “Smith’s criminal actions caused considerable trauma and emotional distress for his victims who returned to their homes to find their homes violated by his actions leaving widespread damage to doors, garages and windows. This is another example of if we can secure the evidence we will prosecute burglars and put them before the courts to face the consequences of their actions.”
DC Barry Simpson of the Op Converter team said: “The process of making voluntary admissions to similar offences to those charged and subsequently requesting a judge to take them into consideration against upon sentencing was explained to Smith during a series of visits at HMP Norwich. Smith wished to assist us to provide closure for the victims of his crimes and to apologise in the form of a restorative letter to them. Detectives will now be able to update the victims of all the burglaries to reassure them that they were not specifically targeted and that the person responsible has received over two years imprisonment.”
Operation Converter is an initiative aimed at encouraging offenders to admit their crimes. This has benefits for all – police are able to give victims some peace of mind that an offender has been caught for the burglary of their home or the theft of their property and the individual has the opportunity to clear their slate, so they can have a fresh start when they are released from prison, without the possibility they will later be traced for a further offence.
Offenders have to give sufficient detail for officers to be sure they have committed the crime and these offences are then ‘taken into consideration’ at sentencing.