A SERIAL burglar from Bridgwater has been jailed after he was caught red-handed raiding an outhouse at a Devon village.
 
Former soldier Stephen Holcombe, 59, of Teal Close, Bridgwater, has 29 convictions for theft or burglary and was on a suspended sentence for previous raids on sheds when he was caught in Dunsford.
 
A DNA hit from a shed at a house in Dolton, near Okehampton, showed he had broken in during an earlier raid but found nothing worth stealing.
 
Holcombe is a veteran burglar whose method is to tour remote villages late at night looking for sheds, garages and outbuildings to break into.
 
He normally steals tools or garden machinery and in the past has told police he targets outbuildings because the penalties for breaking into them are much lower than for burgling the homes they are attached to.
 
Holcombe admitted two burglaries and was jailed for a year at Exeter Crown Court.
 
Judge Graham Cottle also activated nine weeks of a 12 week suspended sentence passed at Taunton Crown Court in May last year.
 
Benjamin Leakey, aged 22, of Dover Road, Taunton, admitted handling goods stolen in the Dunsford raid and was ordered to do 80 hours unpaid community work.
 
The judge told Holcombe:”You have been committing offences of dishonesty for about 40 years. There are numerous thefts and burglaries of dwellings and non-dwellings.
 
“You have been dealt with in every way known to law; you have been put inside from time to time and had community orders. None have been successful. You return to your old ways time after time.
 
“That is what happened yet again. You received a suspended sentence in May 2016 with a thinking skills programme and ongoing victim empathy work.
 
“The question is whether you learned anything. The answer is that you almost certainly did not. It did not stop you returning to your old ways.”
 
Gordon Richings, prosecuting, said Holcombe tried to break into a garage at a large detached house off West Lane, Dolton, on the night of July 10 last year.
 
He failed to get into the garage but removed a bolt to get into a shed housing pumping equipment. He left empty handed but police found his DNA on a bolt that had been removed.
 
He was arrested at Briton Bank, Dunsford, near Exeter, when a resident saw two men carrying items to a car at 5 am on December 21 last year.
 
The witness saw Leakey carrying tools to the car where police found both men trying to hide in the footwells so as not to be seen.
 
They recovered a Stihl chainsaw and charger, a DeWalt radio, and fishing gear that had been taken from a nearby shed.
 
The owner, a medical doctor, said she felt less secure in her home. The saw belonged to her 23-year-old son who had started his own gardening business.
 
Harry Ahuja, for Holcombe, said he has worked well with probation in the past and wants to take part in restorative justice programme.
 
He said:”He is a repeat offender, but a sporadic offender.”
 
Tom Bradnock, for Leakey, said he had been offered money to go with Holcombe and thought they were doing security work. He had no idea he intended to go out stealing.
 
He said Leakey had just lost his job working at a department store restaurant at the time of the December raid and needed money for Christmas.