Metal thief caused £50,000 of damage to office building

Maxwell Hill, aged 40, of Portland Street, Leamington, had pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to three charges of burglary.

Prosecutor Gareth Walters said that over a weekend in September last year Hill broke into the Woven Ground rug shop in Regent Street, Leamington, through a rear upstairs window.

He escaped with three Apple computers and rugs worth a total of £6,500.

At the end of October he broke into an office block at 11 Waterloo Place, Leamington, parts of which were unoccupied at the time. Hill stole lengths of copper piping from unoccupied rooms on all four floors, causing damage which cost in excess of £50,000 to repair.

He returned to the same block over the first weekend in November, but having got into one of the unoccupied areas he then targeted the offices of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools by breaking through a wall in the attic.

On that occasion he stole four laptop computers, two digital projectors and cash to a total value of just over £8,000.

But Hill, who had 92 previous convictions including 36 for burglary, was arrested after his DNA was found at the scene.

He immediately admitted responsibility for the burglaries and another one at Woven Ground during which he had also taken a computer, and said it was because he needed money for his drug addiction.

Nick Devine, defending, said: “He has spent a career coming before the courts and then being sent away.

The last time Hill was before the court for burglary was in 2007 when he had been jailed for four years, and he had not been involved in any since his release until these offences.

“He has had a long-standing drug addiction problem; he needed money, and he returned to what he knows best,” added Mr Devine.

Jailing Hill, Judge Marten Coates told him: “This is your 29th appearance before the court, and you are well known for burgling premises which are commercial in nature.

“You do untold damage when you take computers in commercial burglaries; you have no idea what information is on them.

“There was a significant loss in these offences of £65,000 including the damage, and there was some degree of planning.”