Burglar jailed after targeting 'exclusive' Stratford home hit by fire - The Stratford Observer

Burglar jailed after targeting 'exclusive' Stratford home hit by fire

Stratford Editorial 14th Jan, 2019 Updated: 14th Jan, 2019   0

A BURGLAR broke into an exclusive Stratford house and stole glass decanters and silverware after the owners had had to move out following a tumble dryer fire.

But Wayne Taylor was identified as the intruder when DNA tests on blood found inside the large detached house in Tiddington Road, showed it was his.

The 44 year-old of Websters Lane, Market Drayton, Shropshire, was jailed for two years and five months after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to the burglary.

Prosecutor Ian Ball said the house in Tiddington Road was ‘a large property set in grounds of about an acre.




In November last year the owner and his mother, who is in her 90s, had been moved out while work was carried out to repair damage caused by a tumble dryer fire.

But when he went to check the property he found a window at the rear of the house had been smashed.


Inside an antique chair had been broken by the intruder standing on it as he climbed in through the window.

An untidy search had been carried out, and two glass decanters with silver tops and a quantity of silver tableware, for which no value was given in court, had been stolen.

A scenes of crime officer who attended found some blood on the inside of a paperweight box in the dining room, and a DNA test linked it to Taylor.

When arrested in December, he said he had been under the influence of drink at the time, but had been under the impression the house was empty.

aylor, who had convictions for 61 offences and was a ‘third strike’ burglar, added he had sold the property for £60 which he had spent on heroin and crack cocaine.

Ian Speed, defending, said not only had Taylor co-operated fully with the police following his arrest, he had surrendered himself after he had been contacted and told they wanted to speak to him.

Jailing Taylor, Judge Anthony Potter told him: “You live in Shropshire. It’s clear you had travelled to this area with dishonesty in mind.”

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