A BURGLAR who targeted up-market city centre apartments during a month-long crime spree has been locked up.
Between February and March, George Jackson, 21, carried out five raids around Liverpool city centre, often breaking in while the owners were sleeping.
Liverpool Crown Court heard he even returned to the same luxury property in Henry Street three times, where a householder was threatened with a knife in the final raid.
Jailing him for two years and eight months, Judge Gerald Clifton said Jackson deliberately targeted young, middle-class professional couples.
He added: “In my view, that was partly because you believed you had an easy way in, and partly because they were considered by you to be a rich source.”
Geoffrey Greenwood, prosecuting, said Jackson plundered valuable electronic items such as computers, laptops, iPods and games consoles.
In his third raid on March 13, he took the computer of Thomas Ford, who described how his creative life from the last four years had been destroyed.
In a victim impact statement, he said: “It is impossible to describe the loss to me and my partner. Our professional lives were contained on the computer.”
Mr Greenwood told how the first break-in took place on February 21, just a day after Jackson was given a community order for theft.
He raided the property in Henry Street while Michelle Wilson, her partner and child slept.
When she woke, she discovered valuables and £900 had been taken, while a bloodied T-shirt was found in the property. It was later found to be Jackson’s DNA.
He was eventually caught red-handed when he and an accomplice returned to Henry Street and carried out raids on two different flats.
When occupier Ryan Boyle woke and went to investigate, he was threatened with a knife and screwdriver.
But police were called and Jackson was stopped outside with a back-pack full of valuables.
Jackson, of Sandringham Drive, Aigburth, later admitted five burglaries.
Neil Gunn, defending, said Jackson went through a difficult childhood and was taken into care at the age of 11. He said he became indebted to “more criminally sophisticated” men while staying at a hostel in St Helens.
