Lombard Street businesses’ burglar arrested and brought before courts after Newark officers recognise him in CCTV
A burglar has been brought before the courts after he was recognised from CCTV footage.
Michael Richens, 42, of Queens Court, Newark, was arrested on Sunday (December 8) at a Newark address, despite a failed attempt to hide behind a bedside cabinet.
Richens broke into two town centre shops, both on Lombard Street, in the early hours of Thursday, December 5.
A crowbar was used to try and force entry to a furniture shop and an antique store next door during the the two quickfire burglaries.
Richens smashed a window at the antique dealers first but was left empty-handed when his attempts to get inside the building failed.
Undeterred by this, the intruder then forced his way into the furniture shop — this time helping himself to an iPad, cash, and an empty phone box.
The break-ins were reported to the police later that day, and officers visited both stores and others nearby to gather CCTV.
After trawling through hours of footage, officer hit the jackpot when they uncovered a five-second clip showing the face of someone rummaging through items, who they recognised Michael Richens.
A warrant was put out for his arrest — and after being handcuffed, he admitted there and then to being involved in the Lombard Street break-ins.
In addition to the two burglaries, Richens was charged with fraud by false representation, after using a stolen bank card to buy items.
He pleaded guilty to all three offences during an appearance at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Monday (December 9).
Richens has been released on bail with strict conditions, ahead of his next appearance at Mansfield Magistrates’ Court on January 16, when he’ll be sentenced.
Sergeant Marcus Bloomfield said: “Hours and hours of CCTV footage were viewed by our officers in an attempt to identify the person responsible for these break-ins.
“Thankfully, these searches proved fruitful, with our neighbourhood team managing to identify Richens as the intruder and leave him with no choice but to admit what he’d done.
“We completely appreciate the damage to people’s livelihoods commercial burglaries of this nature cause, so will always do everything in our power to try and catch any culprits.
“Our promise as a team is that we’ll continue doing this going forward, to ensure thieves like Richens don’t get away with their actions.”
Inquiries remain ongoing for a number of other commercial burglaries which have occurred in Newark over the past few weeks.
