A 17-year-old unemployed youth from Upper Richmond Road, SW15, appeared at Balham Youth Court on 28 November and was sentenced to a four month Detention and Training Order for burglary and two counts of handling stolen goods.

On Thursday 5 October 2006 at 07.20 hours, police were called to a flat at Cherrywood Drive, Putney, whose owner returned to see that his front door had been kicked in. The burglars had stolen money, tobacco, cosmetics, cufflinks and a torch.

A description of the youth was circulated and on 9th October, a Wandsworth Focus unit was on patrol in Putney when they spotted him walking across Putney Common cricket pitches. He attempted to evade police but they soon caught up with him and arrested him on suspicion of burglary and handling stolen goods.

He committed these offences while on a Detention and Training Order licence issued in June 2006 for theft, common assault and breach of his ASBO. For this he received a further 145 days, which are to run concurrently.

Sergeant Bruce Gill from the Prolific and Priority Offenders’ unit, said, “He will be spending his last Christmas as a youth behind bars and his period of detainment will be a wonderful present for the people of Putney. I want to thank the response officers who caught him and the CID officers who built a strong case against him.”