Jail for burglar who broke into 40 homes

A thief who stole wedding rings, jewellery and televisions from more than 40 homes across the Black Country and Staffordshire caused "untold unhappiness" to his victims, a court heard.

Paul Hyde yelled out to relatives in the public gallery "tell my kids that I love them" as he was jailed at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday for three-and-a-half years for plundering family homes across the region.

Recorder John Potter told the 29-year-old: "Your remorse falls on deaf ears because of the amount of victims you have caused misery to.

"You embarked upon a spree of burglaries that caused untold unhappiness, you made the lives of your victims unpleasant and caused them significant loss."

Hyde, of Merridale Street West, Penn Fields, Wolverhampton, pleaded guilty to four burglaries and asked for 38 others to be taken into consideration. The court heard how he stole £27,000 of property in the four burglaries, £31,000 in the others and caused more than £5,800 of damage to his victims' homes.

Mr Julian Elcock, prosecuting, said he raided a house in Southfield Road, Wednesfield, on December 29, 2007 and took £2,810 of goods.

He then broke into a property in Castlecroft Road, Wolverhampton, on January 10 this year, taking items worth £5,100, including two new televisions that had only been delivered that day.

Mr Elcock said Hyde also broke into a house in Marlbrook Drive, Penn, on January 18 and stole £20,000 of Indian gold.

He was arrested after his DNA was recovered from an address in Stubbington Close, Portobello, on March 8.

During that burglary he stole two gold wedding rings and £180 in cash. None of the property has been recovered.

Recorder Potter told Hyde: "Things like wedding rings can never be replaced and it is you who is responsible."

West Midlands Police spokeswoman Jaspreet Jagdev said the majority of the 38 burglaries were in Wolverhampton but there were at least two in Staffordshire and two in Walsall.

By Elizabeth Joyce