A serial burglar broke into a woman's home while she was attending her dad's funeral.
Carlos Graham stole a haul of goods worth more than £25,000 over the course of one morning during a spate of break-ins. The "regular, repeated and habitual" offender was previously part of an organised crime group which tied up victims and attacked them with weapons.
Andrew McInnes, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that the burglaries occurred in the Sefton Park area on the morning of June 30 this year. Among the properties targeted was a flat on Croxteth Road.
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One of the occupants was working away in Canada at the time, while his partner had been out between 11am and 4pm. She returned to find the door deadlocked and the kitchen window open, and was forced to climb inside as a result.
There, she discovered that her home had been "ransacked", with coats left scattered around after being searched and drawers opened. Among the items stolen were a wallet with two credit cards, two backpacks, a PlayStation and games and £25,000 of professional recording equipment – described as the "tools of the trade" of the absent owner.
The couple's Ring doorbell camera showed Graham, of Carter Street in Toxteth, looking through the windows of the apartment before covering his face and entering. A search of his home by police later revealed the console, games and a controller.
The 44-year-old then attempted to burgle an address at nearby Ashby House, on Ivanhoe Road. Occupant Ben Davies left home for work at around 7.30am but received a mobile phone notification shortly before 11am, with his CCTV system alerting him of an intruder.
Graham could be seen on the footage outside the patio doors attempting to gain entry. Mr Davies later mentioned this to David Ashton, who lived in a neighbouring unit with his wife.
Her dad's funeral was to be held that day, and she left the flat at around 9am. Mr Ashton followed on shortly after 11.45am.
He was informed of the attempted break-in by Mr Davies at around 6pm and returned home. While he did not notice anything amiss at first, when his partner arrived later she found that the spare bedroom had been broken into – with an iPad and a digital camera taken.
The door to this room was left locked, and it appeared that the intruder had "made efforts" to force it open from the inside in order to gain access to the rest of the apartment. It is believed that Mr Ashton was home at the time, and disturbed Graham without realising.
He said in a statement that the break-in "heightened the anxiety of the day" for the retired couple, who "felt the vulnerability and fear". The defendant has 20 previous convictions for 39 offences, including raids on luxury homes in which people were bound and threatened with weapons.
In the late 1990s, Graham was part of a gang which targeted high value residential properties. On one occasion, a seriously ill woman was threatened in her bed while an incident in Preston saw an occupier attacked with a snooker cue before jewellery was stolen.
The dad-of-to was subsequently locked up for 12 years for conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary in 2001. He then received four years and 54 months for burglaries in 2015 and 2019 respectively, being released from the latter stretch in December 2020 and spending 18 months out on licence before reoffending.
Peter White, defending, told the court that the cannabis user had been living with his mum at the time of his latest crimes. He said: "All the victims of these offences had a profound effect on them.
"Clearly, Mr Graham was not to know that it was one victim's father's funeral that day. He has had some difficulties in his life.
"He was expelled from school at the age of 11, and that is where his education ended. He struggles with basic literacy.
"Quite simply, he fell back into his old ways. He accrued something of a cannabis debt and turned back to type to repay that debt."
Graham admitted two counts of burglary and one of attempted burglary. He was jailed for five years and three months.
Judge Denis Watson KC also ordered him to pay a victim surcharge. Sentencing, the judge said: "Your record is such that it can only be appropriate to describe you as a regular, repeated and habitual burglar.
"Your convictions for burglary are many and extensive. You set out to break into properties until you had satisfied your need, in your mind, to find valuable property."
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