Neighbour snaps Bristol burglars in the act
A quick-thinking neighbour took pictures of Matthew Clark and Stefan Poyster as they removed a window to get into the three-bedroom house.
Although they managed to get away with an LCD TV, laptop and Nintendo DS games console worth about £1,400, which they sold to buy drugs, the pictures enabled police to quickly identify and arrest them.
At Bristol Crown Court yesterday Clark, aged 28, and Poyster, 21, who were both living at Cave Court in Wilder Street, St Paul's, both pleaded guilty to the burglary that happened last month.
But they avoided going to prison after Judge Simon Darwall-Smith handed both non-custodial sentences.
After the case victim Simon Duffy, a 42-year-old postman, said the break-in had left his family, who have lived in Little Stoke for 15 years, devastated and considering moving away.
Mr Duffy took a week off work afterwards to fit an alarm, replace the window glass and cut down trees which had screened off the house. He also now has a guard dog.
It was the second time in five years the family had been burgled.
Mr Duffy said: "I came home about 10 to 15 minutes after it happened.
"The police were there, they said we'd been burgled and I couldn't believe it.
"I think we're the only ones who have been broken into. If it happens again we'll be moving.
"We took some flowers round to the person who took the picture and told her when they were arrested. It was brilliant, what she did."
The neighbour who took the pictures, who asked not to be named, said: "I just wanted to be a good neighbour."
Julian Howells, prosecuting, told the court the neighbour spotted Clark and Poyster acting suspiciously just after noon on April 6.
He said: "They rang the door bell and walked off. They came back and she (the neighbour) took some digital photographs of them.
"They were sat on bench outside, one looked through a window, and it was Matthew Clark who removed double-glazed glass from the lounge window as Stefan Poyster kept lookout."
The court heard Clark went into the home and was passed a rucksack by Poyster. Shortly afterwards the rucksack was passed back outside and Clark re-emerged carrying an object.
Mr Howells said: "It was apparent they were trying to conceal their faces. The neighbour took photographs and could see a TV under a blanket."
The police were called and were given the photos of the men.
Poyster admitted being the lookout and told police he had had a few drinks before going for a walk and stopping at the home, but noticed the neighbour and had wanted to leave the scene.
He said he sold property from the break-in in a pub, bought some cannabis "weed" and went to the bookies.
Clark had apologised when interviewed by police.
The court heard Clark had been previously jailed for three years for house break-ins, and was still the subject of a community order at the time of the burglary.
Poyster had previous convictions for theft and common assault.
Jennifer Tallentire, defending Clark, said he had turned back to crime after a check with the Criminal Records Bureau resulted in him losing his job as a security guard at Cabot Circus.
Miss Tallentire said he relapsed into drug use when a relationship ended but had been given the chance of a place at a centre to deal with his problems. Richard Shepherd, defending Poyster, urged that his client could be dealt with in a way that would allow him to continue his restaurant work.
Judge Darwall-Smith told the men: "People who burgle other people's houses usually go straight inside. It's not what they take; it's the intrusion into other people's lives."
But he said he was giving Clark, who had an extensive previous history of burglaries, a final chance to change his ways with the help of St. Vincent's Housing Learning and Guidance, a Bristol-based housing project for substance abusers.
Clark received a year's suspended sentence while Poyster was ordered to undergo 18 months of supervision, attend a programme to tackle offending behaviour and observe a curfew from 12.30am to 7am for six months.
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