Decorators stole £130,000 in Shropshire and Mid Wales raids
Two decorators serving seven-year jail sentences for their part in a burglary spree which targeted homes in Shropshire and Mid Wales made more than £130,000 from their crimes, a court heard.
Krzysztof Karmaciuk, 35, benefited to the tune of £85,684 from his crimes while Ryszard Elert, 37, was found to have made £46,000, Mold Crown Court was told yesterday.
Both Polish men were part of a gang which had committed 114 house burglaries netting more than £300,000.
They targeted homes in Shrewsbury, Newtown, Welshpool, Abermule and Montgomery.
Judge Niclas Parry made an order under the Proceeds of Crime Act that Karmaciuk should pay £9,686 within six months – or serve an extra six months in jail.
The court heard a specialist police investigation found Karmaciuk had nearly £10,000 in a bank account in his native Poland.
The court heard Elert had no assets and the judge made a £1 nominal order, not to be collected, to keep the order alive in case he came into funds in the future. The two men were jailed in April this year.
Karmaciuk and Elert admitted conspiracy to burgle – Karmaciuk admitted 110 of the burglaries and Elert 67 between October 2010 and December 2011.
The gang operated from Wiltshire through Gwent, Dyfed-Powys, North Wales, West Mercia and Cheshire and netted a haul valued at more than £300,000.
Vulnerable houses in rural areas were targeted and they were linked by their finger prints and DNA.
The two defendants, both painters and decorators, turned to crime when work dried up so they could continue to send money home to their families in Poland.
A third man believed to have been involved managed to escape and was believed to have fled to Poland.
Stolen property amounted to almost £318,000; £51,000 in Gwent, £54,500 in Dyfed Powys, £5,000 in Cheshire, £130,000 in North Wales and £77,000 in West Mercia.
