Three men have been jailed for burglary in Doncaster, a year after the launch of a city-wide campaign of action tackling burglaries by South Yorkshire Police.
As a result of Operation Castle, one of the men, Lee Barnes, 46, of HMP Doncaster, received an eight-year sentence after raiding a person’s home and threatening her with a knife. He admitted multiple burglaries and attempted burglaries as well as fraud, assault and robbery.
Jesse Sadd, 32, of no fixed address, was jailed for five years earlier in the year after admitting multiple burglaries and theft-related offences.
Mario Cicack, 19, of Hexthorpe Road, was sentenced to three years for four counts of fraud and three counts of burglary.
South Yorkshire Police were able to solve a number of burglaries that had not even been reported yet as they tracked the teenager down.
Cicack stole victims’ bank cards and one of these cards was traced to a shop. Officers then tracked him to his address, where their search found many other stolen goods linked to other cases, some of which hadn’t even been reported beforehand.
Detective Sergeant James Wiggins said: “Cicak had no previous convictions but was prolific in his offending. This was one of many cases where we looked at a series of burglaries and linked intelligence before working with Uniform response teams to arrest him and bring him into custody.
“Even thought it was his first conviction, he got a hefty three-year sentence which shows just how seriously courts and judges are taking crimes of this nature
Before the launch of Operation Castle, Doncaster had one of the highest burglary rates in the country.
Joseph Hill, 39, from Doncaster said: “Burglary was a real issue, I was affected by it and I know many others who were also. One of my best friends had to sell his car to be able to cope with the financial loss he suffered (due to burglary.
“It’s a relief to see something being done about it.”
Since Operation Castle, Doncaster has recorded its lowest number of burglaries in the past five years, with a 21% reduction in reports compared to the same period in 2022.
Doncaster Police are now dealing with around 100 fewer burglaries a month.
DS Wiggins said: “We’ve been able to recognise patterns of offending and gather vital intelligence on burglars’ movements and behaviours which has already yielded some significant results and seen some prolific offenders given lengthy custodial sentences.”