Burgling scourge of student homes took selfie during Leeds house raid
He targeted homes in the Headingley and Burley area
A bungling career burglar who targeted student homes incriminated himself after taking a selfie of himself during a break-in.
Scott Preston targeted the homes during the summer, stealing thousands pounds in electrical items and even a car.
He was jailed at Leeds Crown Court this week having admitted a string of offences.
The 50-year-old targeted the first home on Cardigan Lane in Burley on the night of June 22, when the occupier returned home to find Preston inside the property.
He had already taken her Toyota Yaris and was carrying out a duffel bag containing her possessions.
He was chased by the woman’s boyfriend but Preston managed to escape over a wall. The bag was dumped nearby and recovered.
The car was also later found and recovered on cloned registration plates, prosecutor Emily Jenkins said.
Sometime between July 15 and 23, he broke into a home on Estcourt Terrace in Headingley and took two TVs worth £1,200 and other electrical items such as a webcam and fan.
On July 22 he and an accomplice smashed their way into a an Airbnb flat on Estcourt Avenue and took more than £2,000 of items. Visitors to the city had been staying at the rental property to attend a university graduation ceremony.
Preston was spotted on a doorbell camera and police appealed for his identity, along with the other man.
Preston was arrested on July 24 from his home on Nunnington Terrace.
Police recovered his phone and found the selfie image he had taken during the second break-in.
Appearing in court over a video link from HMP Leeds, he admitted three dwelling burglaries, four counts of handling stolen goods and breach of a suspended sentence.
He had been given an 18-month suspended sentence in May for coercive and controlling behaviour.
Preston has 44 previous convictions for 72 offences, including multiple burglaries dating as far back as 1992.
Mitigating, Michael Walsh said Preston was “realistic” about what he was facing in term of a jail sentence.
He said Preston had managed to stay out of trouble for more than seven years but had lapsed due to a problems with his methadone prescription, needed to keep his heroin addiction at bay.
Judge Tom Bayliss KC told Preston: “You are a career burglar, that’s one way of putting it.
“You are a brazen burglar. You were effectively looting student houses and taking some pride in it, given the selfie.
“It was a campaign of burglary.”
He jailed Preston for four years and activated 12 months of his suspended sentence, making a total of five years.