A man dubbed by police as Britain’s ‘most prolific

A man dubbed by police as Britain’s ‘most prolific hotel
burglar’ was jailed for four years on Tuesday.

The professional was on the run from prison when he
started on his latest spree, burgling literally hundreds
of hotels – ‘his speciality.

‘
Ian Harris started his ‘trade’ as a 14-year-old and
has spent 27 years behind bars.

Judge Richard Gee told him: ‘Prison has not worked
for you but I can find no other way of dealing with you.

‘
Harris, 44, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to six specimen
charges of burglary and asked for a staggering 334 similar offences
to be taken into consideration involving property worth pnds
stlg 100,000.

‘It was a one man crime wave,’ said Mr Nicholas Rhodes,
prosecuting, at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

He explained how during each burglary Harris used the same
method of simply sneaking into hotels and then forcing entry into
locked rooms.

Harris was seen by a member of staff leaving a previously
locked room at the Great Northern Hotel in Pancras Road, Kings
Cross, on November 15 last year.

He initially claimed he was looking for a friend, but while
police were called the manager discovered two other rooms had been
forced open, said Mr Nicholas Rhodes, prosecuting.

Police arrived and found items including a guest’s valuable
watch on him.

After his arrest Harris revealed he had escaped from prison
at the beginning of 1990.

At Kentish Town Police Station he admitted the three burglaries
of different rooms at the Great Northern Hotel.

Harris made admissions to a burglary of 1200 US dollars at the
Mowbray Hotel in Earls Court and two others of further foreign
currency from Paddington hotels beween August and November last year.

He went on to tour the London area in a police car pointing out
numerous hotels he had struck at including the Waldorf, the Hampshire
and the Strand Palace Hotels, dating back to when he originally
escaped from prison.

The court heard how Harris had convictions for similar crimes
dating back to 1961 and had since then spent very short periods of
time out of jail.

Mr Vincent Coughlin, defending, asked the judge: ‘Perhaps
the time has come for the courts to try something else.

‘
But the judge disagreed.

ENDS