Double killer Stephen Bosanko jailed AGAIN for raids on three Preston shops – one with a two-foot-long axe

Notorious villain Stephen Bosanko was jailed by a judge at the city’s Crown Court today after admitting slamming his way into Booths supermarket in Sharoe Green Lane, Toni and Guy’s hair salon in Fishergate and the Co-op convenience store in Broughton in search of cash.

Bosanko, 44, whose criminal record has now topped 100 offences, blamed the burglaries on the break-up of a relationship which led him to spiral back into a life of drink and drugs. Prior to that he had been “doing well” trying to put his life back on the straight and narrow.

The court was told the roofer, who as a young man was responsible for the deaths of two people in separate incidents in 1999 and 2003, now wanted to finally turn his back on crime and make a better life for himself and his family.

Recorder Ayisha Siddiqi heard that police arrested Bosanko in the early hours of Boxing Day last year after a break-in had been reported at Booths in Fulwood. When officers attended the scene they saw him dragging a heavy bin across Sharoe Green Lane and onto the grass banking outside the Royal Preston Hospital.

When they looked in the bin they found it was stuffed full of cigarettes. Damage to a window where he had smashed his way in cost the company £400 to repair. He pleaded guilty in Preston Magistrates Court and was given bail.

Three months later on March 30, again in the early hours, police got a call that the front door window of Toni and Guy’s in the city centre had been smashed and property stolen. CCTV showed Bosanko twice throwing a metal drain cover at the door to smash his way in.

Inside the salon he was seen kicking the cash box several times to break it off a desk. Again he was arrested. Damage to the desk was valued at £130 and the cash inside the box was estimated to be about £50. The cost of repairing the glass door was almost £2,000.

Then on April 8 an intruder alarm went off at the Co-op store in Broughton and when police arrived they found it too had been broken into. Bosanko was captured on CCTV smashing through the glass door using a two-foot-long axe to gain entry.

Two tills at the shop were destroyed as he used the axe to force them open. 10 bottles of spirits and some cash had been stolen.

A police dog named Woody was called in and Bosanko was found nearby, along with the spirits and the drawers of two tills. The animal also discovered his coat, a rucksack and an axe in bushes at the rear of Broughton High School.

The damage to the store’s front door cost £1,000 to repair and the Co-op lost a day’s takings because the premises had to shut for the work to be done.

Barrister Nicholas Roxborough, defending Bosanko, said his client was “realistic as to the likely outcome” of his latest appearance in court. “The defendant is well aware of the high likelihood of a prison sentence.”

He said Bosanko showed contrition and accepted his wrongdoing. But Mr Roxborough urged Recorder Siddiqi to suspend any prison sentence.

“This was mindless offending,” he said. “He was on the straight and narrow and was holding down two jobs.

“About this time he had an argument with his partner and removed himself from the family home. He was living briefly in a hotel (but) he returned to his previous (life) of alcohol and substance abuse.

“Of course these habits are not cheap. He wasn’t thinking clearly. He turned foolishly to offending to feed his habit.

“He is ashamed of the way he acted. He had been doing well since his last period in custody and he does hope he can get back onto the path that he was on rehabilitating himself. He wants to put this (offending) behind him.”

Bosanko’s criminal record, said Mr Roxborough, had been “unattractive”.

Prior to this latest for three counts of burglary and one of possessing a bladed article (an axe), Bosanko had appeared in court 47 times for 97 offences.

The worst two convictions came in 1999 and 2003. He was given six years youth custody for the manslaughter of childhood friend Sajad Ahmed, a father of three, who died after a single punch from Bosanko.

And four years later he was jailed for three-and-a-half years after admitting causing the death of Nicola Shalloe by dangerous driving. The 20-year-old had been a passenger in a car he was driving when it crashed into a tree.

Recorder Siddiqi told Bosanko that turning to drink and drugs after the breakdown of his relationship was “no excuse for what you did”.

“The offences are serious enough to warrant a custodial sentence. I do not think they are capable of suspension.

She sentenced him to a total of 22 months in prison.