'Commuter' gang jailed for string of burglaries

They were arrested after six different burglaries and attempted burglaries during September last year. One attempt included the burglars trying to get into a home on Beeches Road in Shrewsbury while an 85-year-old woman and her 11-year-old grandchild slept inside. The attack saw burglars try to force the window of the front porch before moving to another window to gain entry, but again failed.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court, 31-year-old Florin Iota, of Bridge Road, Saltley, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to four counts of burglary and two of attempted burglary.

Constantin Vaduva, 23, of Washwood Heath Road, was jailed for three years and nine months for admitting three counts of burglary and one of attempted. Alin Gragoreanu, 25, of Wright Road, was sentenced to two years and three months for admitting his part in one count of burglary.

They face deportation on their release.

Recorder Tim Raggatt QC said: “The importance of a case like this is that it was organised criminal activity. This is not opportunistic, but, if you like, ‘proper’ crime.”

One of the break-ins targeted a home on Christchurch Drive, Shrewsbury on September 18 last year when the thieves took a handbag, credit cards and cash.

The court heard the three‘targeted’ houses once they could spot a weakness.

Recorder Tim Raggatt QC said: “You did not target individual homes in one sense, but in another you did, as you would drive around and look for a weakness, be it an open window or door, and select that house as the one to target.

“To that extent of course the properties were targeted, and the planning aspect is clear. These are very serious offences.”

The value of items taken in one break-in alone amounted to more than £3,000, including a flat-screen TV, iPhone, Microsoft smart phone and jam jar of cash.

But Recorder Raggatt added: “It is not just an offence against property, it is an offence against people.”

The court heard that Iota, who admitted six counts put to him, had accumulated convictions in the UK, Germany and Italy, while Gragoreanu has one conviction from aggravated larceny in Romania.

Sentencing Iota, Recorder Raggatt said: “You have a significant criminal record in three European countries, and that record is serious. You are 31 years of age and you are a mature man, and in one sense a mature criminal.”

The third count – the only one admitted by Gragoreanu – took place in Shenstone, Staffordshire when the homeowner was awoken by a call from the police during the early hours of September 20. She went downstairs to find a pane of glass missing from a window and a handbag, laptop, phone and charging cables had been stolen.

Recorder Raggatt said, while sentencing the three that the only mitigation he could see was that they had all pleaded guilty at some point.

He said: “You three together engaged in a brief but serious campaign of domestic burglary in and around Shrewsbury.

“In four cases they were occupied and in two of the cases there were children in the house, and in one there was a very elderly lady who was 85 years old.

"Although it is clear you might not have known there were such people in these houses, the fact is when people go out to burgle and in an organised business like this they take the risk that the houses will be occupied by families and people of all ages –as was the case in four of the six cases.”

All three men will serve half of their sentence in prison and if allowed to remain in the country after release, they will serve the rest on licence.