Runaway burglar foiled by courtside lake

A burglar who vaulted from the dock saw his escape bid sink when he failed to get past the picturesque lake in the grounds of Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Ndricim Jakupi, 20, decided not to hang around when he realised custody was inevitable and ran out of the court, chased by security officers.

He dashed towards the lake and was caught as he considered jumping in and swimming for it.

Jakupi and Shaip Selmani, both 20, had moments earlier been found guilty of a terrifying raid in which they held a kitchen knife to the throat of a home owner before making off with various items.

Among those were the man’s wedding ring and the keys to his friend’s Porsche Panamera which had been parked outside overnight when the driver was too drunk to get behind the wheel.

The pair broke into the house in Avon Way, South Woodford, wearing disguises at 5.30am on 21 June 2015 and woke their sleeping victim demanding: ‘Where are the car keys?

They added: ‘Don’t f**k around and you won’t get hurt.’

The man was then bundled into a cupboard and ventured out a short while later to find the two men had vanished in the luxury motor.

Although they left no forensic evidence at the scene, cigarette butts close to where the Porsche was spotted two days later in Croydon provided positive matches while telephone data mapped their movements.

The burglary occurred just around the corner from Snaresbrook Crown Court where the two men were yesterday convicted by a jury after less than one-and-a-half hours’ deliberations.

After being remanded in custody overnight ahead of sentence Jakupi made a daring bid to escape in front of the packed courtroom.

Prosecutor Paul Casey described to the court how Judge Kalyani Kaul, QC, ‘thereafter released the jury and it was once the jury had been released from court that the judge indicated for the first time that the defendants would be remanded in custody overnight’.

‘Given the verdicts, this came as no surprise to anyone in court,’ he added.

‘Perhaps because it came as no surprise Mr Jakupi at that stage jumped out of the dock in Court 13.’

The court was told how the Serb ‘briefly looked both ways, turned right and left the courtroom through the rear door – the jury door’ before dashing through Judge Grace Amakye’s empty room and out towards Eagle Pond on the court grounds.

‘He was, after some delay, detained by officers and brought back into the court precincts,’ added Mr Casey.

‘He did put up a struggle, both verbally and physically, and was eventually brought into the cells.’

Glenn Harris, for Jakupi, told the court his client ‘apologises for his behaviour’.

‘It was at the moment, whether for the first time or not, the moment he appreciated that he was going to prison,’ said Mr Harris.

‘He panicked and he ran.

‘The irony is that now he is liable for some extra time in custody which was the very thing he was worried about in the first place.’

Judge Kaul told the pair: ‘The victim in this burglary was terrified for his life but you carried on.

‘There was no need to threaten him or use a knife and hold it to his neck.

‘As a result of the burglary of his home that night he has lost control of his own life.

‘He lives in fear, he suffers paranoia.’

The judge added: ‘Having been convicted, you, Mr Jakupi, jumped out of the dock and ran through another judge’s chambers.

‘You ran past the room where the jury were, thankfully, in their room but terrified, out of a fire exit and out towards the lake.’

Jakupi, of (32) Kenilworth Avenue, Walthamstow, and Selmani, of (11) Vallentin Road, Walthamstow, were each jailed for eight-and-a-half years for aggravated burglary.

Jakupi was given a six month consecutive term for contempt after his failed escape bid.

An order was also granted for the forfeiture and destruction of the kitchen knife.
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