'Wimbledon Prowler' who terrorised wealthy homeowners in 12-year campaign faces jail

A prolific burglar known as the Wimbledon Prowler who terrorised affluent homeowners in a 12-year-long campaign of break-ins is facing years in prison today.

Takeaway owner Asdrit Kapaj, 42, carried out meticulous surveillance on multimillion pound houses in the Wimbledon village area before disabling or destroying security systems to avoid detection.

The thief attracted the nickname The Wimbledon Prowler after detectives linked break-ins which started in 2006, and said they feared 200 homes had fallen victim to the same criminal mastermind.

The Prowler’s hallmarks included slashed security cameras wires, painting over the lenses, entering the homes through upstairs windows, and wearing a distinctive fishing hat and face covering.

He drove down from his home in Greater Manchester specifically to carry out the raids, and often used residents’ back gardens to move around Wimbledon and stay off roadside security cameras.

Kapaj managed to evade capture for more than a decade while terrorising homeowners of Wimbledon, but was finally caught in February when poised to carry out yet another raid.

The thief today admitted he was the Wimbledon Prowler, as he pleaded guilty at Kingston crown court to 21 counts of burglary, two charges of attempted burglary, and one charge of going equipped to burgle.

“He resides in the Manchester area and has been coming down to London”, said prosecutor Alexandra Boshell, who said Kapaj had been caught on motorway cameras “travelling down and coming into the London area” at the time of the break-ins.

“He has been coming down from that area to Wimbledon village and committing these offences.”

Kapaj today confessed to stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of jewels and valuables, but is believed to have gambled away the ill-gotten gains.

In one raid alone in February 2017 Kapaj stole jewels worth £371,855, according to the charges, and he broke into five homes over Christmas last year to steal around £65,000 worth of valuables, including one break-in on Christmas Day itself.

The Met Police had devoted significant resources to catching the thief, but despite high-profile appeals for information and surveillance operations Kapaj remains at large for several years.

Tennis ace Boris Becker joined the effort to catch the thief in 2013 after his Wimbledon home had been targeted, while footballer Nicholas Anelka was also said to have confronted the Prowler.

Kapaj was finally caught on February 22 this year outside a Wimbledon home wearing a snood over his face, and carrying a burglary kit including gloves, a torch, and a pocket knife.

He has spent the last two months in prison, before this afternoon Kapaj pleaded guilty to the charges against him.

The court heard Kapaj is a Kosovan national who has lived in the UK since he was a teenager, and he has been granted indefinite leave to remain in this country.

He has no previous criminal convictions, but Judge Peter Lodder QC, the Recorder of Richmond-upon-Thames, noted: “This is rather a lot of activity for someone who has never been in trouble before.

“If this is a case as it appears to be, in which someone has identified a particular area and conducted a sustained campaign, that will have an effect on sentencing.”

Speaking after the case, one of the victims, 81-year-old Phillippa Beck said she believed Kapaj had regularly used her back garden as a through route as he carried out the burglaries, and said the raids left residents feeling “very vulnerable”.

“He must have got some sort of buzz from it”, she said of Kapaj, adding that she felt “blank amazement” when police captured him and realised he lived so far away.

Laurie Porter, who sits on the Wimbledon Village Safer Neighbourhood Panel, added: “People had always been aware that he was creeping around our gardens, and I think I can speak for most of us when I say we are sleeping more easily now he has been caught.”

Kapaj was remanded in custody until a sentencing hearing on June 21.

Prosecutors will decide in the next week if they will pursue Kapaj to trial on two further charges of burglary and an attempted burglary, which he did not enter a plea to today.