KOVAC:JAIL FOR JUNKIE WHO CREPT INTO WOMAN’S HOME AND STOLE PHONE
A drug addict who crept into a woman’s home in the dead of night to steal her phone and purse has been jailed.
Zdenek Kovac, 24, scaled scaffolding surrounding the property and clambered through a third-floor window, Southwark Crown Court heard.
He made off with a mobile phone, purse and £40 in cash after breaking into the home of Rachel Morris in John Adam Street, central London, in the early hours of November 22, last year.
Kovac was locked up for 18 months for what Judge Andrew Goymer described as a ‘distressing’ crime.
Ms Morris was awoken when she heard Kovac prowling through her home and got up to investigate.
‘She got up and went to investigate, but before doing so she went to get her mobile phone from by the front door in order to phone the police only to find it was gone,’ said prosecutor Gavin Ludlow-Thompson.
‘When she reached the living room she found that other items were missing, such as her purse, including her bank cards, and a quantity of cash, around £40.
‘She became aware that entry had been gained via a window.’
Investigating officers recovered a palm print from the window, which was later found to belong to Kovac.
Kovac was not arrested until May of this year, when he tested positive for opiates.
The court heard he had been previously been sentenced to two-and-half-years detention in September 2007 for robbery, with a six-month concurrent sentence for burglary passed just a fortnight later.
Judge Goymer told Kovac: ‘The fact is this is very distressing for a victim to realise that they have a stranger in their house at night.
‘It is perfectly true that you did not come face to face and confront her, but it is terrifying because the victim does not know what that person has got with them or what that person might do to them.
‘Ms Morris has been left with a permanent feeling, which will take a long time to wear off, of being insecure and vulnerable in her own home.’
Kovac, of (85) Clarence Road, Enfield, Middlesex, admitted burglary.
ENDS
