Professional burglar Matthew Greenaway was jailed for five years and two months on Thursday, September 23, 2021, for breaking into homes in Luton while people were asleep.
Greenaway woke a 92-year-old woman as he rifled through drawers, stealing jewellery of sentimental value from her home in the Hockwell Ring area.
Prosecutor Will Noble told Luton crown court that the elderly woman thought the man in her room was her son, who is aged 70. The break-in left them feeling “vulnerable and fearful,” he said.
On the same night, April 12 this year, he had broken into two homes in Hockwell Ring. One couple woke to discover their BMW was being stolen and had been crashed into some gates.
Another couple were woken by a neighbour and found their car had gone. He had tried to burgle another house in the area but the owner was disturbed when he activated an app on her phone that was attached to her doorbell.
She discovered ‘jemmy marks’ on her door, said Mr Noble. The police were able to identify the 50-year-old burglar from doorbell footage. Greenaway, of Petersfield Gardens, Luton, appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty to three burglaries, two thefts and an attempted burglary.
He asked for nine offences to be taken into consideration, most were burglaries committed on the same night.
At the time he was out on police bail for burglary and possessing a bladed article. John Harrison, defending, said Greenaway had “an appalling criminal record.”
He said he had a history of cocaine and heroin use, but had managed to become clean. But he said Greenaway relapsed after Christmas Eve 2020 when he came home to find his partner dead on the floor.
He had also suffered the loss of a close friend shortly afterwards. Greenaway refused to attend over a video link from Bedford prison because he had wanted a report on his mental health to be carried out.
Jailing him in his absence, Recorder Bal Dhaliwal said: “All the offences are extremely serious.
The occupants were present, some were very elderly.”
She described him as a “professional burglar” whose first break-in was in 1985.
