Yahoo News Serial burglar ordered to pay Lord Sugar £173k for repeatedly targeting his home
A serial burglar has been ordered to pay Lord Alan Sugar £173,000 in compensation after targeting his home in Essex during a £1.2 million campaign of crime in the area.
David Buisson stole mostly cash and jewellery from homes and businesses in Epping Forest and Canvey Island between December 2015 and June 2017.
Buisson, 50, admitted 11 burglaries which included two on the billionaire Apprentice star’s Chigwell mansion and two attempted burglaries on other homes.
He was sentenced last year at Basildon Crown Court to eight years in prison, Essex Police said.
In his court hearing on Monday, under the Proceeds of Crime Act he was ordered to pay compensation to eight of his victims, including Lord Sugar.
Callum Munday, prosecuting, said that Buisson had benefited from the burglaries to the tune of £1,270,379.50.
Judge Ian Graham ordered the confiscation of these assets, and that compensation be paid to eight victims, including £173,977.77 to Lord Sugar.
He gave Buisson, a former helicopter pilot, three months to comply with the court order, with four years in prison should he fail to do so.
Essex Police said officers investigating Buisson had found tools and items used for drilling and lock picking at addresses linked to him in Ongar and Woodford.
They also found a stolen drone and jewellery.
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A seized computer showed internet searches had been made for some of the addresses that were later burgled.
He fled to Spain and was caught by the National Crime Agency in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol in April 2018.
He returned to the UK in May.
Detective Inspector Rob Staples said after Buisson was jailed: “The detectives involved in this complex investigation left no stone unturned to identify and locate David Buisson to hold him to account for his part in these offences.”
