‘Smiling’ burglar in Sutton Coldfield caught after attempting to get seized van from police pound

A burglar posing as a house buyer interested in a property near Sutton Coldfield was caught for the crime after attempting to retrieve his van from a police pound. Sean Bent from Coalpool Lane in Walsall approached a householder in a home near Lichfield Road in Wishaw, close to The Belfry, on Sunday, September 17 last year.

Bent asked the resident if the house next door was for sale and was told ‘no’. The 41-year-old accused the homeowner of lying and asked for a number should the home become available for renting or sale again. He said his name was ‘Sean’ and the man, who was concerned, gave a fake number.

He left in his van but returned less than a week later on Saturday, September 23, with people looking inside his property. Bent parked his van next to the house next door and claimed he was ‘moving in’ and was ‘clearing the house out’.

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Bent also said he tried the number he was given and ‘knew it was false’. The suspicious resident left the area and called the police. But later that evening the cameras on his home were activated and showed two men inside with torches searching his property, disabling a camera inside.

The householder returned to his home with police, found it had been broken into and the ‘doors screwed shut from the inside’. The property had been ransacked and a number of items including a TV, cash, jewellery, keys, and electrical items being stolen.

But Bent’s luck ran out when his van was stopped and seized on Wednesday, October 4, as he was disqualified from driving and had no insurance on the vehicle. When he went to Nuneaton Police Station on October 9 to collect his van , he was arrested on suspicion of burglary.

He was wearing the same jacket as he had been wearing in the CCTV footage from the house on the day of the burglary. And was positively identified as being linked to the break-in.

Bent admitted the burglary at Warwick Crown Court last Thursday (May 16) and was jailed for two-and-a-half years and ordered to pay a £228 victim’s surcharge. He has also been handed a restraining order against contacting the victim or approaching the property.

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DI Wolsey of Warwickshire Police’s serious organised and acquisitive crime team said “It was fairly clear that Bent had been somewhat brazenly scoping out the property during the day before he carried out the burglary. He made no attempt to hide his identity, giving his own name when asked, and clearly had no expectation that any of this would catch up with him. Luckily he smiled for the victim’s camera, and we’ve got him put away for two and a half years.”