Burglar stole £800 from Dorking's Oxfam shop

By mcollison

by Matt Collison

mathew.collison@essnmedia.co.uk

A CONVICTED burglar travelled from London to Dorking to carry out a "despicable" raid on a charity shop, a court has heard.

Oswald Glowinski, 38, travelled from the capital to the town's Oxfam store where he stole £810 in cash.

He appeared at Redhill Magistrates' Court on Thursday (October 2) where he pleaded guilty to burgling the shop between July 19 and 20 this year.

Laylah Kessler, prosecuting, told the court how Glowinski worked with another unknown burglar to force entry into the store overnight and smash through the shop's safe.

She said the keyholder of the charity shop had left the store secure after closing after a day's trading on Saturday, July 19 this year.

Later the next day she was informed by police the shop had been broken into and was called to the premises.

The defendant had broken in through the shop's back door using a screwdriver and a hammer and gained access to the safe.

A sum of £800 was taken from the safe as well as the shop's £10 float.

Fingerprints left at the scene of the crime were linked to Glowinski, of Whitmora Road, in north London, who was later arrested and admitted he had been involved in the offence.

Glowinski told police he had received a phone call from an unidentified man who asked him to join him in the burglary.

The court heard Glowinski had committed similar offences in 2005 and others in 1999 to feed a crack cocaine and heroin habit.

He had recently been released from prison for another burglary charge and had been made subject to a community order for theft at the time of the Oxfam burglary.

Amy Connell, defending, said: "Mr Glowinski has stated in interview his involvement and knows that it was a stupid and foolish thing to do. He says to me that he regrets it so much but that the reason he did it was that he needed the money.

"He says the reason he did not name the other man is that he was not being purposely unhelpful but genuinely feared for his safety if he gave this other man's name."

Magistrates warned Glowinski he faced another prison sentence for the offence.

He was placed on unconditional bail to return to Redhill Magistrates' Court later this month.

Timothy Nathan, chairman of the bench, told Glowinski: "We consider that your offence is so serious that you may go into custody."

He continued: "The reasons for this is your history, you had not been out of prison for a burglary charge for very long at the time you carried out this offence, and the despicable nature of the offence."