A serial burglar has been spared jail after breaking into a sleeping couple’s home, rifling through their belongings and leaving them with his own unique calling card – a pair of dirty jogging bottoms dumped in the hallway.
David Norman Nicholson, 42, was discovered downstairs at the couple’s home on Fulford Road in York after the male victim, who was in bed with his partner, heard “rattling” noises.
He went to investigate and found the hooded intruder at the bottom of the stairs. When the startled householder asked him what he was doing, Nicholson replied: “There’s a burglar in the house.”
Nicholson fled, the police were called and the victim checked around his three-storey terraced home, prosecutor Oliver Connor told York Crown Court.
“He searched his house and noticed some coins on the floor in the dining room,” added Mr Connor.
It was presumed that the discovery of the coins explained the rattling sounds which had alerted the victim after Nicholson broke in at about 11.20pm on 30 September, 2023.
“In the hallway were a pair of grey jogging bottoms which were damp and covered in mud,” said Mr Connor.
“[The named victim] woke his partner up to see if anything else was missing and she noticed her purse had been taken.”
The purse’s contents – including “sentimental” photos, gift cards and cash including 10 euros – were also taken. Nicholson had also fled with the male victim’s Berghaus raincoat, worth £110.
Nicholson, of Leeman Road, York, was arrested after being identified on CCTV and from his DNA found on the jogging bottoms he left in the couple’s hallway.
During police questioning a week later, he denied being the burglar, saying he “would not go into someone else’s property and do that”.
When the case reached the Crown Court in May, Nicholson – who has a huge criminal record – denied the offence, claiming the jogging bottoms he left at the property weren’t his.
A trial was scheduled, with judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, warning Nicholson: “The jury will try you and your trousers on the date we have mentioned.”
But in the event a jury wasn’t needed because Nicholson pleaded guilty the following month and sentence was adjourned to Friday (18 July).
67 previous convictions
Prosecuting barrister Mr Connor said that Nicholson had 67 previous convictions for 143 offences including burglaries way back in 2002, but the vast majority for thefts including shoplifting.
In March last year, he was convicted of another burglary and received a three-year jail sentence but was released on prison licence in April this year.
Defence barrister Nicholas Hammond said that since his release from prison in mid-April, Nicholson had been complying with his licence conditions and undergoing regular drug testing.
Sentencing judge Simon Hickey said that Nicholson may have been hiding from police when he broke into the house in York because “there was something going on in the area, so it was not a straightforward burglary, which may explain you trying to disguise yourself by leaving your jogging bottoms in the house”.
He said it must have been “shocking” for the couple to be woken by “rattling and rummaging” noises coming from the dining room but noted that Nicholson hadn’t attacked the victims and he had already served a lengthy prison sentence.
The judge also noted a probation report which said that Nicholson was at a “turning point” and had new stability in his life which had persuaded him to give the prolific criminal another chance so he could get the help he needed to resolve his drug problem.
Ordinarily, ‘third-strike’ burglars like Nicholson are subject to the minimum mandatory sentence of three years behind bars, but for all the mitigating circumstances he was instead given an 18-month suspended jail sentence with a six-month drug-rehabilitation programme and 15 rehabilitation-activity days.
He was ordered to pay £100 compensation to the victims and a statutory surcharge.