Five men were sentenced on Friday, February 28 to a total of 26 years and three months imprisonment at Winchester Crown Court following a lengthy investigation by officers across northern Hampshire into a series of rural dwelling burglaries including Andover.
The men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary following in excess of 80 dwelling burglaries within Winchester, East Hampshire, Andover and the surrounding counties of Sussex, Surrey, Essex and Oxfordshire between November 2012 and May 2013.
- Guy Harbord, 30, Lordship Lane in Dulwich, London was sentenced to five years and six months imprisonment
- Steven White, 30, no fixed abode was sentenced to five years and six months imprisonment
- Justin Collins, 35, No fixed abode was sentenced to six years imprisonment
- Leigh James Ash, 31, High Street in Sutton was sentenced to five years and three months imprisonment
- Liam Riley, 26, Panmure Road in Sydenham, London was sentenced to four years imprisonment.
Detective Chief Inspector Darren Rawlings said: “These offences were committed by a team of professional burglars operating from London and Kent who were forensically aware and highly organised.”
“Dwelling burglaries can have a huge impact on the victim and the community in which they occur and therefore we dedicated a number of investigators to this series of burglaries in order to identify the people responsible and reassure the public.”
“Creative, innovative and pain staking detective work was undertaken to solve these crimes and these sentences have concluded what was a lengthy and complex investigation.“