A member of a burglary gang who targeted Asian families for their gold has been jailed for four years.
In September, a total of 42 years in sentences were handed out to other members of the group.
Today, Patrick Doran, 30, received two and a half years for his part in the conspiracy, which he admitted, and 18 months for a separate burglary in Wolverhampton.
Judge Niclas Parry, sitting at Mold Crown Court, told Doran that he was being sentenced for the conspiracy on the basis of two burglaries and that, on a second day, he went with two other conspirators who were involved in the disposal of stolen goods at a pawnbrokers.
But Doran, previously of the Ruthin Road caravan site in Wrexham but now of Beckett Street, Bilston, Wolverhampton, was a member of a conspiracy which involved as many as 37 burglaries in North Wales, Chester, the Wirral, the Welsh borders and the Midlands, the court heard.
It was planned and sophisticated gang crime involving the deliberate targeting of the Asian community, which had also targeted the elderly and vulnerable, said the judge.
Doran’s role in the conspiracy could not be looked upon in isolation, he said.
In one of the two burglaries he had been involved in, a retired gentleman had been confronted, the court heard.
At a time when he knew that police were looking for him because of his association with others, he committed another burglary in Wolverhampton where an Asian family had been targeted and a woman returned home to find two men on the landing walking between bedrooms.
The judge said he had taken into account Doran’s guilty pleas, the fact that they were daytime burglaries, and that he had no convictions for burglary.
Defending barrister Philip Tully said his client had mental health problems and had been persuaded by others to get involved.
He was a family man with a wife and children, was in employment, and was the main carer for a severely disabled family member, he said.
The conspiracy involved a large number of burglaries over a considerable period of time but Doran had been involved in two burglaries only.
The earlier hearing was told that stolen cars had been used and the burglars got clothes from charity shops – including Beatle wigs – to disguise themselves.
They were forensically aware with evidence of scenes being cleaned, latex gloves being used and bleach being poured to prevent possible detection. Bottles of bleach were recovered from the vehicles used.
Property to the value of more than £100,000 had been stolen by the gang.
Asian families’ homes were deliberately targeted, the judge said, because offenders rightly believed that high value gold would be in their homes.
“The conspiracy caused great concern to the Asian community,” he said.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/burglar-helped-north-east-wales-12037194
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