A PROLIFIC burglar snatched thousands of pounds of devices from an accommodation for international students, a court has heard.

Lee Stacey stole from the student’s flats, a Specsavers store and a chip shop in a spate of break-ins.

Prosecutor, Stuart Ellacott, told Bournemouth Crown Court on June 21 the series of burglaries began on January 22 in Specsavers, Wimborne.

A staff member was working late in the office and had left his bag, containing an iPad, at the bottom of the stairs near the back of the shop.

The back door had been left open to allow a mechanic, who was fixing  the victim’s broken car, to use the bathroom.

At around 7.40pm the defendant cycled up to the door, entered and searched through the bag before stealing the iPad worth £950 and cycling off.

Around a month later, on February 27, Stacey gained access to the Kings Education Centre in Bournemouth, which is locked with a magnetic door requiring a key fob.

CCTV footage showed the defendant knocking on various doors at 3.30pm before finding three rooms unlocked.

He stole a laptop, phone, iPad and headphones costing around £3,000 from one room, a Macbook Pro costing £1,500 from another as well as a phone, cash and bank cards from the third.

None of the items were recovered.

On March 28 a cleaner was working at a fish and chip shop at 6.30am when she heard the backdoor open.

Believing it to be the delivery driver, she went to say hello but instead found the defendant stood in the doorway.

He said he was looking for ‘Richard’, but when the cleaner told him there was not a worker with that name, he left.

She continued to work until she heard someone in the office and found Stacey rifling through her handbag.

He was briefly detained by the delivery driver but made off once he heard the police had been called.

Stacey stole £250 from the cleaner’s purse which she needed for her bills and rent.

The defendant has 47 previous convictions for 108 offences from 2001. 

Mitigating, Richard Tutt, said Stacey has an “appalling record” and is a long-term drug addict.

He was released from his last custodial sentence in October 2023 and was immediately made homeless.

“This is how we treat people with appalling records when released from custody, so he relapsed,” said Mr Tutt.

Stacey began to burgle again to pay off previous drug debts and to feed his habit.

“The sad truth is that he has been on a revolving door into prison for 21 years.”

Mr Tutt added the defendant is “determined to break the cycle”.

Judge Robert Pawson said the victims were made vulnerable by being targeted in their student accommodation and a loss of a laptop is “substantial” to a student.

Stacey, 39 and of no fixed abode, was jailed for three years and nine months for three dwelling and two non-dwelling burglaries.