Man jailed for spate of distraction burglaries across West Midlands

Bernard McDonagh has been jailed for more 10 offences which included burglary and being unlawfully at large.

The 60-year-old, of no fixed address, was charged with multiple offences and was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday.

McDonagh, who refused to appear in the dock for sentencing, was given a prison sentence of eight years and six months after pleading guilty to the offences.

West Midlands Police said a manhunt was launched in September last year following numerous reports of distraction burglaries taking place in Birmingham, Sandwell, Solihull and Wolverhampton.

The distraction burglaries were particularly targeting elderly victims, with McDonagh pretending to be a worker for the local authority, or purporting to work for energy companies, where he would then trick the victims to let him into their property to carry out checks, before burgling their homes.

The force said it issued numerous appeals for witnesses including CCTV of an offence to identify and locate the suspect, then, after receiving information, a warrant was carried out at an address in South Yardley in Birmingham on October 10 and he was arrested.

Det Sgt, Chloe Morgan, from Birmingham Police, said: "This spate of burglaries had a devastating impact on the victims across the West Midlands.

"McDonagh carried out meticulously planned offences on victims that he knew he would be able to prey on. This preying on older victims shows his nature, but thankfully, we were able to quickly begin a hunt for him and detain him.

"Thanks to the hard work of the officers investigating, we were able to build a case against McDonagh and quickly charged him.

"He is clearly a highly dangerous individual and it is a good thing for the public that he is now off the streets.

"Hopefully, the people he has harmed through his history of offending can gain some comfort from the knowledge he has been brought to justice."