Jailed: Woman stole phone from Wolverhampton home while victim slept
A prolific criminal who stole a mobile phone from a sleeping man after she walked into his Wolverhampton home was starting a two-year and five-month jail sentence today.
The man's daughter came downstairs to find Kerry Ryan leaving the property in Deans Road, Eastfield, at around 4pm on September 3, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
Ryan, 37, who had previous convictions involving 43 separate offences, gave a false story when asked what she was doing before leaving the house, said Mr Antoine Muller, prosecuting.
The daughter realised she had been tricked after waking her father from his slumbers in the lounge to discover his phone had been stolen.
The pair then drove after the culprit who was still holding the phone when stopped by them a short distance away from the burgled address. They also took a photograph of her and forwarded it to the police who recognised Ryan who was arrested the following day.
Mr Jon Roe, defending, said she has been taking drugs since the age of 21 and her vulnerability had been preyed on by others. She managed to halt her addiction, and offending, in 2016 but returned to drug taking after being "dragged back into the life she was trying to leave" by a former acquaintance, he said.
Ryan from Howard Court, Brooklands Parade, Moseley, Wolverhampton, pleaded guilty to burglary - her sixth conviction for such an offence - and was jailed by Judge James Burbidge QC who told her: "You have a significant history of offending and this was an opportunist burglary."
