'Career thief' burgled two Bolton homes in one night

Paul Tillott, 53, broke into both houses in the early hours of April 4.

Bolton Crown Court heard how a homeowner in Sharples was woken by a phone notification at just before 6am that morning.

Prosecutor Laura Broome said: “He looked out of his bedroom window and saw the defendant stood at the side of the address, lurking by the side of his wife’s car in the driveway.”

Tillott seemed to be trying the car door but appeared to run off after the man told him to “get lost.”

The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

But later that morning the homeowner found that the front door was open and that his wife’s car keys were missing.

He found that his wife’s car had been unlocked and that their garage door was open, with the TV from their second lounge left on the garage floor.

Ms Broome said that the car keys had cost around £250 to replace while repairing the door cost another £100.

But that very same night Tillott hit another house not far away heading towards Eagley.

This time a woman was awoken by a crashing noise and found her television and computer had been stolen along with her bank card and various gift cards.

Ms Broome said: “She realised that the defendant had entered through a dog flap in the rear door.”

She said that Tillott appeared to have kicked the dog flap open and reached up to open the door.

He was later caught on CCTV using the stolen bank card at a nearby newsagents.

Tillott, who has 38 previous convictions for 85 offences, was arrested soon after and at first denied his crimes when questioned by police.

But he eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of dwelling house burglary and to fraud.

Olivia Brooksbank-Laing, defending, said that Tillot, of no fixed abode, had earned credit for his guilty plea and that he had shown real remorse since his arrest.

She said: “In his words to me, he feels absolutely shameful and he can’t believe he keeps doing this.”

Ms Brooksbank-Laing said that Tillott had become homeless and that “in that sense, the system let him down”, while he had also struggled with drug use for many years.

But Judge Jon Close pointed to the sheer number of previous convictions that Tillott had to his name.

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He pointed out that 15 of these previous convictions had all been for burglaries of various kinds.

Judge Close said: “The defendant has one of the most appalling antecedent records for this type of offence that I have ever seen.”

Addressing Tillott directly, he added: “You have constantly burgled people’s houses, prioritising your own drug misuse above other people’s safety and security in their own homes.

“You are a career thief and for over 25 years you have been a plague on the community.”

Judge Close jailed Tillott for a total of four years and six months.