Woman jailed for burglary and breach of CBO

Rebecca Connelly has been jailed for a year for burglary and breach of a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO).

The 29-year-old, of no fixed abode, was handed a CBO in November 2019 which prohibited her from entering certain areas of Fareham town centre, and prohibited her from begging for money from the public.

On 12 November this year, Connelly was caught begging in Victoria Street in Gosport.

The same day, she burgled a house on the same street between 6.50pm and 7.20pm. During this incident, she stole £260 in cash.

At Portsmouth Crown Court on Thursday 10 December, she admitted the offences and was jailed for 10 months for the burglary, and an additional two months for breaching the CBO which will be served consecutively.

Gosport Inspector Matt Wake said: “Rebecca Connelly is a persistent beggar in the Fareham and Gosport areas. While we of course sympathise with people’s individual circumstances, this type of behaviour has a negative impact on people who live and work in the town and can sometimes be linked to other criminality.

“This was the case for Connelly, whose behaviour escalated to committing burglary.

“CBOs are imposed to prevent people from continuing this sort of behaviour, but there are those individuals who ignore the conditions and continue to break the law.

“We encourage anyone effected by this type of behaviour, and by other forms of anti-social behaviour and associated criminal activity to report this to us so we can take action.”