Burglar's 25 break-ins in Solihull and Sutton Coldfield shortly after prison release

A prolific burglar who broke into 25 houses in Solihull and Sutton Coldfield three months after he was released from prison on licence has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.

Steven Ives (31) of no fixed address, but previously of Turks Head Way, West Bromwich, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to two charges of burglary.

He also asked for 43 other offences including 32 more house burglaries in Solihull and Sutton Coldfield and eight non-domestic burglaries to be taken into consideration.

Prosecuting, Kathryn Roughton said that altogether Ives had escaped with £143,973 of property, including five cars worth a total of £76,000, but £102,000 of items had been recovered, some of it with his help.

Ives had been freed on licence in last September from a 54-month sentence imposed at Birmingham Crown Court in 2008 for house burglaries.

But on December 8, he burgled the home of a Solihull woman who was away visiting her son in London.

Ives broke into the house in Grange Road, Olton, by smashing a bedroom window and escaped with £3,000 of property, including the victim’s late husband’s Hugo Boss watch, jewellery he had bought her, a digital camera and cash.

Ives was caught after leaving blood on a pillow case in the room.

Ives also confessed to a number of other offences including a burglary at a house in Monastery Drive, Solihull, on December 19.

There were two sets of offences Ives had also asked to have taken into consideration, reflecting offences committed in Solihull and in Sutton Coldfield.

Some of them dated back as long ago as 1999 to 2006, but 23 of them had been committed following his release.

In a number of the raids he had disconnected burglar alarms and put them into garden ponds or buckets of water.

Mrs Roughton said of the 32 burglaries to be taken into consideration, 28 had been committed during the daytime while the occupiers were out – but four had been evening or night-time burglaries of occupied houses.

Three of those victims did not discover they had been burgled until the next morning, but one was disturbed and ran after Ives as he fled, but he got away.