Junior Bent when he appeared in the Advertiser last year after telling us about a cave in the Town Gardens used by drug takers Ref: 24827-15 BURGLAR Junior Bent has been jailed for three-and-a-half years under the three strikes law after going on a spate of offending to feed his heroin habit.

The 44-year-old, who committed 51 offences over a few months in spring, raided several houses in the Old Town area to get money to buy drugs.

Because he has two previous convictions for house burglary since November 1999, when the new law was brought in, he faced a mandatory three-year prison sentence.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told a judge sitting at Swindon Crown Court that Bent first raided a home in Clifton Street in June.

He said that the family had gone out to work in the morning as normal but when they got home in the evening they found the that dining room window at the rear of the house had been smashed.

Bent had stolen a DVD player, DVDs, a VCR, hi-fi equipment and other items worth a total of £1,900.

His fingerprints were found on the window and he was later arrested.

Mr Meeke said that at the start of June a woman who rents a flat on Sheppard Street got home to find she had been burgled.

He said Bent had broken in through the front door and taken her video recorder and Sky box but left blood at the scene.

A couple of weeks later he used a ladder to get in to a house on Bath Road through an open upstairs window.

Once inside he stole cheque books, credit and debit cards, a PlayStation and jewellery.

He was also stopped for driving while disqualified and tried to swallow a wrap of heroin when he was taken into custody.

Bent, of Radnor Street, pleaded guilty to three burglaries, to handling stolen goods, eight deceptions, an attempted deception, driving while disqualified, without insurance and possessing heroin.

He also asked for a further 34 offences to be taken into consideration, including nine house burglaries.

The court was told that he had 78 previous convictions, including burglaries in December 2000 and December 2002.

Rob Ross, defending, urged the court to adjourn the case so his client could be fully assessed in the community to see if he was suitable for a drug treatment and testing order.

But jailing him Recorder Ian Lawrie said: "Mr Bent, you have pleaded guilty to a sequence or series of offences which are serious, some individually more serious than others, namely the burglaries.

"You, and people like you, are the bane of residents who find their houses invaded and their things pawned in a bid to pay for your drug habit.

"The courts will consistently take a very dim view of it."

As well as jailing Bent he also banned him from the road for six months for the driving matters.

Barrie Hudson