Preston thief with 33 offences on his record jailed after 20-house burglary spree in Deepdale
A bungling burglar who tried to get into 20 houses on the same street early one morning has been jailed by a judge in Preston.
Christopher Booth only managed to gain entry to one of the terraced properties – the home of a frail woman aged 70 and her 90-year-old bedridden husband.
But he left empty-handed after the wife caught him in the living room and bravely told him to “get out,” the city’s Crown Court heard.
Booth apologised to the woman and tried to shake her hand before fleeing. But he had been caught on CCTV trying numerous front doors in St Thomas’s Road, Preston and was arrested.
The 37-year-old former plasterer pleaded guilty to stealing a bicycle from a property in Fylde Road, Preston two months earlier.
He admitted two burglaries in St Thomas’s Road, eight attempted burglaries and a further 10 offences taken into consideration – all on the same day.
In the other burglary he managed to get through the front door only to be thwarted by a locked internal door.
Recorder William Beardmore was told that in May 2024 Booth was caught on camera in the company of an unidentified woman as he tried several door handles in Fylde Road before finding one unlocked and slipping inside to steal the cycle worth £580.
Then in July he was captured on film trying a number of doors in St Thomas’s Road, Deepdale before entering the home of the elderly couple.
The court heard the lady had unlocked the front door at around 6.45am awaiting a visit from her bedbound husband’s carers. But after going back upstairs she heard a noise and went down to find Booth standing in the middle of the front room.
He said “sorry” and then told her “wrong house.” He put his hands up in the air as if to signify he had not taken anything and after being told to get out tried to shake her hand as he left. She saw two hearing aid boxes had been opened, but nothing had been stolen.
At another house on the street he got through the front door, but not an internal one and left. CCTV showed he had tried at least 18 other houses but failed to get in.
The court was told Booth, of no fixed address, had a record of 33 previous offences. He was also in breach of a conditional discharge for theft and a suspended sentence for battery.
His defence barrister Claire Larton said her client accepted that he tried multiple doors on St Thomas’s Road. The offences had been unplanned and opportunistic. At the time he had been estranged from his family and committed the offences out of desperation.
His offending, she said, had stemmed from “a traumatic and abusive upbringing.” He was diagnosed as suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety. Alcohol and drug addiction had blighted his life.
Since his arrest Booth had shown “genuine regret and remorse” because of the impact on the vulnerable 70-year-old woman. And during five months in custody on remand he had received treatment for his mental health issues which now seemed to be under control.
Recorder Mr Beardmore told him his presence in the front room of the pensioners’ home had had a “significant impact” on the woman. He had entered the house looking for items to sell to buy drugs.
“You put yourself in a position where you were in the property of a 70-year-old woman who had significant health issues,” he said.
“The thoughts that would have gone through her head, about what was going to happen, would no doubt have a long-lasting effect on her.
“You have many previous convictions. You are not a person who is new to this. You were intoxicated at the time, you were intending to steal items to feed your addiction.
“I accept your remorse is genuine. But only an immediate custodial sentence meets the seriousness of your offences.”
The recorder sent Booth to prison for a total of 21 months for one count of theft, two of burglary, eight of attempted burglary, breach of both a conditional discharge and a suspended sentence, with a further 10 attempted burglaries taken into consideration.