Burglar Marco Serrao was traced after police found a blood smear in the property he broke into
A MAN who broke into a Swansea flat while the occupant was at the hospital visiting his daughter has been jailed.
Marco Serrao used a metal pole to smash a bedroom window in the ground floor property and gain entry — sitting on his victim's sofa for a while before making-off with his computer game console, games, and DVDs.
The 38-year-old was traced after scenes of crime investigators found a blood smear on the smashed window of the Mount Pleasant property.
Ian Ibrahim, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that tests on the sample of blood came back with a DNA match to Serrao — who it turned out had been arrested days before and jailed for possessing a bladed article in a public place.
Serrao, of Oystermouth Road, Swansea, pleaded guilty to the June burglary when he appeared in court via videolink.
In his police interview he said he had smashed the window of the flat with a metal pole he found laying nearby and, finding the property unoccupied, had sat on the sofa for a while before taking the XBox console and DVDs, closing the curtains as he left in an attempt to conceal the break-in.
In a victim impact statement, the man Serrao burgled said the incident had left him feeling "angry and violated" that a stranger had been in his flat and had gone through his belongings.
The court heard the defendant has nine previous convictions for some 18 offences including for public order, supplying heroin, and burglary.
Steve Burnell, for Serrao, said his client had moved to Britain from his native Portugal in the mid-1990s to work. He said the defendant had made full admissions to the police when questioned, and was remorseful for what he had done.
Recorder Gregory Bull QC said the courts regarded burglary as a serious offence because of the impact it had on its victims and their feelings of security in their own homes, and he sentenced Serrao to eight months in prison.
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