Burglar jailed or seven and a half years

A man has been jailed or seven years and six months for seven burglaries in Southampton following an investigation carried out by Hampshire Constabulary’s Operation Hawk team.

Graham William Hill, aged 38, of no fixed address was jailed at Southampton Crown Court yesterday (January 23) after pleading guilty to seven burglaries and admitting to a further 11 offences which were taken into consideration by the Judge when sentencing him.

Hill committed burglaries between July and October 2019 and crept into people’s houses while they were sleeping to steal anything he could get his hands on, from food items to jewellery and mobile phones. 

Hill targeted homes  multiple times. Breaking into the same house again and again.

He targeted one home on Radway Road twice, he entered two houses on Brookvale Road twice and one home on Winchester Road.

Operation Hawk, the team based at Southampton Central Police Station, caught and arrested Hill on October 15, 2019. He was found with stolen items in his possession, including keys to a house he had burgled, and evidence on his phone that he had been trying to sell the items he had taken.

Later, officers used CCTV and forensic evidence to link him to his crimes.

Hill also admitted his part in six other burglaries committed in the Portswood and Bassett areas, plus three commercial burglaries, handling stolen goods, and fraud where he used one of the bank cards he stole.

Hill was jailed or seven years and six months.

Detective Sergeant Simon Price of the Operation Hawk team said: “Hill’s crimes will have had a huge effect on his victims. Not only were people’s houses entered and their property taken, but Hill was brazen and greedy enough to break onto homes while his victims were sleeping, more than once, with no care for the lasting impact this would have on them.

“He survived on committing crimes until we were able to apprehend him and put a stop to his offending. Burglary is a terribly intrusive crime and we hope this shows communities in Southampton that burglars like Hill will face justice.”