A Hove burglar who avoided jail a year ago by writing a judge a heartfelt letter is now back behind bars after another string of break-ins.
Jody Keating, also known as Robert May, convinced Judge Martin Huseyin last February he was breaking the drug habit which had seen him clock up convictions for more than 100 offences.
He was given two years to keep his record clean or risk being sent back to prison – but just eight months later, he broke into Greggs in Worthing through a roof hatch and stole cash from the safe.
Now, he’s serving an 18-month term, which includes his previous sentence and another for the most recent burglary.
Brighton and Hove News can also reveal Keating was the man caught on camera taking a £40,000 bassoon from a Brighton train in October 2021.
Following a police appeal, the wind instrument was found behind a tree in a garden in Brighton and returned to its owner, Stuart Russell.
Before it was discovered, Keating had been in contact with Mr Russell in an attempt to return it. The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to press charges.
At last February’s hearing at Lewes Crown Court, Keating was sentenced for three burglaries in Eastbourne in January 2021 and one at Xoxo Cafe, in Prince Albert Street, Brighton, on Monday 1 November 2021.
In his letter, Keating said that he was being asked to caretake a flat in Hove, which would allow him to avoid former friends who might tempt him back on to drugs.
Judge Huseyin then told him: “Judges often get letters from people saying I want to try again, I want drug rehab, but they’re rarely as detailed as yours and rarely show quite as much insight.
“The penny is finally dropping. I think there’s a momentum that you have at the moment where the prospects of getting you rehabilitated are higher now than they have been for a long time because you are much more motivated with your life and what you want to do about it.
“I’m prepared to take a chance that this is not just just you trying to say the right things for the judge.”
He was given two years for each of the Eastbourne burglaries, two months for the Brighton burglary and another two months for a fifth offence of trying to sell a stolen tattoo gun, all to run concurrently and suspended for two years.
He was also ordered to do 30 days rehabilitation activity and nine months drug rehabilitation under the direction of his supervising probation officer.
But before the drug rehabilitation ended, he had committed another burglary.
In the early hours of Sunday 9 October 2022, police were called after an intruder alarm activated at Greggs, in Montague Street, Worthing.
Two suspects had forced entry via a roof hatch, causing extensive damage, and stole a quantity of cash from the safe.
Inquiries led to the arrest of May, 48, of no fixed address, and Patrick Knight, 52, also of no fixed address. Both men were charged with burglary.
Knight failed to attend court and inquiries are ongoing to locate him.
