A neighbourhood officer’s tenacity helped catch the man who broke into a store in Newark town centre.
Anthony Burton smashed a window with a drain grate before crawling over broken glass to get inside Costa Coffee.
While trying to hide his face with a bandana, Burton then scurried across the shop floor to the counter in Stodman Street.
At that point, he stole the till drawer, before also helping himself to change from the staff tip jar and making his way back to the exit.
The 44-year-old burglar then crawled back through the broken window and fled from the scene, in the early hours of the morning on 13 October.
Despite his attempts to conceal his identity, Burton didn’t manage to get away with what he’d done, which was in no small part down to PC Ryan Flaherty.
The Newark town centre beat manager wasn’t originally assigned as the main officer for the case but became involved after taking a special interest in the investigation.
Having taken it upon himself to conduct all outstanding inquiries and review the available CCTV, PC Flaherty managed to identify Burton as the masked intruder soon after.
Burton was then given quite a shock on 17 October when he heard a knock on his door and opened it to find PC Flaherty and a team of police officers waiting to arrest him.
The thief – who was wearing the same shoes he’d had on during the burglary – made a full confession on the spot and was charged with burglary that same day.
By that stage, he’d also committed a separate attempted burglary at a Newark nail salon on 18 June and a theft from a town centre shop on 10 June too.
Having pleaded guilty to all three offences, Burton, of London Road, Newark, later appeared before Nottingham Magistrates’ Court to be sentenced on Thursday (4 December).
He duly received a 12 month community order and was told he must complete 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
Sergeant Kate Taylor, of the Newark Neighbourhood Policing team, said:
“Anthony Burton showed a complete disregard for the law by deciding to smash his way inside a shop in the middle of the night.
“Motivated by a desire to steal, he then scurried across the shop floor before taking the till drawer and even emptying loose change from the staff tip jar into his pockets.
“Having covered his face throughout the burglary, Burton probably thought he’d managed to get away with what he’d done.
“That was right up until he opened his door a few days later and found a team of police officers waiting outside.
“Among those officers was PC Flaherty, who showed fantastic tenacity in tracking down the intruder and ensuring he was arrested, charged and put before the courts.
“His willingness to go the extra mile to investigate this break-in – despite not initially being the officer leading the case – showed his commitment to his area and to providing a service to victims of crime.
“One of our neighbourhood policing team’s priorities for this quarter has been around tackling street level crime, so PC Flaherty’s actions were fantastic to see and directly resulted in this burglar being captured.”
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