Code on cigarette packets gave away raiders to police

THIEVES who were jailed for burgling a Bolton home were traced to the crime through cigarettes they had stolen. Bolton Crown Court heard how the householder of a property on Markland Hill Lane had gone out on the evening of August 17, leaving a piece of furniture behind the front door as the lock was not working. But just after midnight, a neighbour spotted two men going into the house and a third waiting outside.

Rachel Shenton, prosecuting, told the court how they were then seen leaving with a large object, later identified as a 42-inch television worth £500. Police were called and a few minutes later officers spotted three men on Chorley Old Road. One had a television remote control near him and when he was arrested Derek Broadhurst had Winston cigarettes on him which bore the same reference number as others in the burgled man’s house. The television was later recovered, covered with a coat, in the back of a pick-up truck.

Jonathan Adamson, aged 37, of Duke Street, Bolton, Derek Broadhurst, aged 25, of Chorley New Road, Bolton, and Daniel Waddilove, aged 24, of Tavistock Road, Bolton, all pleaded guilty to burglary. Broadhurst asked for a shoplifting offence to be taken into consideration and Waddlilove also asked for three offences of theft from vehicles to be taken into consideration.

Defence advocates told the court that all three men had been drinking and taking drugs at the time of the burglary. Both Broadhurst and Waddliove have convictions for previous burglaries and Judge Peter Davies sentenced them to three years in prison each. Adamson was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Judge Davies told them: “You have to understand how traumatic, invasive, hurtful and stressful a burglary on a home is. It is an appalling thing.”