Career burglar ‘too old’ for climbing on roofs, says judge

Franklin Tomlinson, 53, had climbed a roof in order to burgle a house, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Recorder Anton Lodge QC told him: “At 53 you should realise
you are getting a bit too old for that.”

The court heard Tomlinson got his first taste of jail in 1991 for burglary and served a six-month prison term

Two years later he was given three years and three months for breaking into three homes in Southampton.

Back in Sheffield, he got four years in jail in 1996 for four burglaries; then seven years for supplying Class A drugs.

His most recent burglary convictions were 12 months in June 2009, a 36-weeks suspended term in August 2010 and a further three-and-a-half years suspended jail term in May 2011.

He was recalled to serve the
latter sentence after breaching
the terms of his previous sentence.

Tomlinson admitted his latest break-in on Handsworth Crescent in Sheffield on September 8 last year.

He raided a semi-detached house while the owner was out and stole a laptop computer, four watches, six bracelets and a jacket, said Peter Pimm, prosecuting.

A neighbour heard noises and spotted Tomlinson escaping, so called the police. He was found hiding in a garden.

Tomlinson, of Handsworth Road, admitted burglary.

Recorder Lodge jailed Tomlinson for three years and said: “You have a long history of going into other people’s houses and helping yourself to their goods.”