Man used spoils of Greenham burglary, court hears

Victim burgled while she was in her home, unawares

THE AFTERMATH of a house burglary in Greenham, committed while the victim was at home, was played out before Newbury magistrates.

The court was told how victim Tracey Towey of Deadmans Lane, Newbury, only discovered her that handbag, containing her bank card, was missing the morning after.

Police initially charged 51-year-old Paul Nutbeam of Howarth Court, The Nightingales, Newbury, with burgling Mrs Towey's home on January 29 last year.

However, he denied the offence and last Thursday, February 10, Zainab Mohamed, prosecuting, said she would offer no evidence in light of Mr Nutbeam's plea to the lesser offence of handling her stolen bank card and using it to steal £500.

Magistrates formally dismissed the burglary charge.

Miss Mohamed said: “Mrs Towey's handbag containing her bank card was taken during a burglary while she was at home. She reported it missing next morning and was told that it had been used three times.”

Unknown to Mr Nutbeam, the court heard, the cashpoint at the Pinchington Lane store had a camera attached and he was filmed and recorded withdrawing the money.

She added: “Police identified him from the film and officers £400 in cash was recovered from his address.”

Mr Nutbeam, a heroin addict who has numerous previous convictions for offences including possessing Class A drugs, handling stolen goods, theft, fraud and failing to surrender to bail, admitted one new charge each of theft and handling stolen goods.

He also admitted twice breaking a curfew imposed by the court as punishment for previous offences by going to the cashpoint at Tesco just before midnight on the night of the burglary and again just after midnight the following day to steal a total of £500 from Mrs Towey.

Ian Campbell, prosecuting, said: “Someone - not Mr Nutbeam - entered the dwelling in Deadmans Lane some time after 7pm and stole a handbag from the kitchen. Within that bag was the bank card.

“Mr Nutbeam was at home when someone came round to his house and said: ‘Here's a bank card, go and withdraw some money and you can keep £100.' He did so and gave £400 to the person who gave him the card and was allowed to keep £100.”

Asked about the [prosecution evidence that Mr Nutbeam was found with £400 in cash, Mr Campbell, said that the money was his client's own and that he had bank paperwork to prove it.

He added: “Mr Nutbeam did not know that ATM cash points are monitored by CCTV. The other man obviously did. It's not the first time my client has been tempted by what he thought was easy money.”

Since his remand in custody, went on Mr Campbell, Mr Butbeam had been provided in prison with a regular precription for the heroin substitute methadone, which could be continued upon his release thereby making it less likely that he would re-offend.

Magiastrates ordered Mr Nutbeam to pay £100 compensation and imposed a four month curfew between 7pm and 7am.