A SWEET-TOOTHED chocolate burglar was nicked by police surrounded by chocolate wrappers – and has now been jailed.
Police had received information from a Coventry home owner that three burglars had nicked a handbag and chocolate bars from the fridge.
They found the young man under a tree in a nearby garden, with the wrappers around him.
Marcus Aulton then unwittingly helped the police further with their evidence by asking: “Have you caught all three of us, or is it just me?”
Aulton (20) from Coventry but of no fixed address, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to the burglary.
Prosecutor Russell Pyne said that in the early hours of July 23 this year, a woman was woken by a noise outside her home in Ventnor Close, Walsgrave, Coventry, so looked out and saw the police.
They had been alerted by a neighbour who had seen three men breaking into the house.
And when she went downstairs she found her handbag with money in it had been taken, together with the chocolate.
The officers had noticed three men in the street who ran off when they were challenged.
But 20 minutes later they found Aulton hiding under the small tree with the chocolate wrappers scattered, wearing gloves despite it being a warm July night.
He said he had been at a friend’s house and that he and two others had gone for a walk – but that he could not remember how he had ended up being under the tree.
Mr Pyne said Aulton had a number of previous convictions and was subject to post-release supervision at the time.
He added that all the property taken was recovered with the exception of three £1 coins.
Aulton, who had told the judge he did not want any legal representation, said he did not want a pre-sentence report or to say anything about the offence.
Sentencing him, Judge Peter Cooke told him: “In the early hours of the morning you entered the home of a lady who was sleeping.
“You were acting in the company of others, and you were wearing gloves, which I take, at that time of the year, to be going equipped for burglary.
“Fortunately all her property was recovered apart from the chocolate and three £1 coins.”
