A burglar has been jailed after being caught on camera by his victim.
Lee Anthony Harding, 43, has been jailed for four years six months for burglary at an address on St Hilda’s Terrace, York in the early morning of 25 June.
At around 5.15am, the victim saw a man leaving his property from a patio door directly below the balcony he was looking over and started to film him on his mobile phone.
Shortly after, he saw the man leaving a neighbour’s property carrying a laptop and called the police. Harding was arrested shortly after by officers but refused to comment during police interviews.
Clothing and footwear recovered from Harding at the time of his arrest matched clothing and footwear worn by the person in the victim’s mobile phone footage and he was charged with two counts of burglary.
Forensic evidence was later used to conclude that Harding’s clothing showed a strong association to that worn by the person in the footage.
Victim very shaken
Commenting on the sentence, investigating officer PC Andrew Chapman of North Yorkshire Police’s Expedite Team said:
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I know the victim in this case was left very shaken from the shock of seeing a burglar leaving his home but I’d like to praise him for his quick thinking actions.
His description allowed us locate and arrest Harding in just under 15 minutes and the mobile phone footage that he provided enabled us to link Harding to the crime.
Whilst no one was hurt in this case, burglary has a devastating impact on victims and so I’m pleased with the sentence handed down today and satisfied that another burglar is now off our streets.