A CLEANER who raided students' bedrooms and stole electrical items has been jailed. Jack Barnes, 26, had access to 2,000 students' bedrooms across the city through his work for Hull Cleaning & Supplies.
The company carried out work for Unicom Accommodation, one of the largest student housing companies in the city.
Barnes, of Riby Court, north Hull, used a key provided by the company to get into the bedrooms and steal items including games consoles and mobile phones.
He has been jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to two counts of burglary and one count of attempted burglary when he appeared at Hull Crown Court.
The court heard the occupants of a shared student house in Carrington Avenue, Cottingham, had left the property locked when they went out on August 2.
Prosecutor Joanne Jenkins said: "When they returned at 4.30pm, they discovered the property had been entered.
"There was no damage, but a Sony Xperia mobile phone, a Nintendo games console and various games had been stolen.
"There was no sign of any forced entry and the only other person to have a key was Unicom, for cleaning purposes."
The second set of offences occurred at flats in Salisbury Street, west Hull, on August 3.
One of the residents, Jonathan Hall, was in the house with his partner at 7am when he heard a noise.
Ms Jenkins said: "He was awoken by the sound of someone opening the door and then a key being turned in the lock, however the dead bolt lock was on so no one from the outside could get in."
Mr Hall went to see who was on the other side of the door and came face-to-face with Barnes, who said he was from Unicom and that he was there to clean one of the other flats.
Mr Hall directed him to where the flat was and returned to his property.
Ms Jenkins said: "Later, Mr Hall heard what he described as drawers being opened erratically in the flat above him and someone dragging bags down the stairs.
"He then heard a key in his door again."
Investigating what was happening, Mr Hall again came across Barnes, who told him he was trying to get into the flat upstairs.
Mr Hall smelt alcohol on Barnes and told him he was going to report him to Unicom.
Barnes replied: "Please don't, I will lose my job."
Mr Hall telephoned Unicom and maintenance manager Martyn Wild visited the Salisbury Street flats.
He approached Barnes to ask what he was doing, but the defendant ran away.
Gary McMaster, the owner of Hull Cleaning & Supplies, was contacted by Unicom and confirmed Barnes was not instructed to clean the properties in Salisbury Street on the date in question.
Police attended and six bin bags filled with consoles and games from one of the flats were discovered at the bottom of the stairs.
Barnes's fingerprints were found on the bags.
He was arrested by police on August 18. The court heard that he has several previous convictions for burglary.
Barnes's solicitor Harold Bloomfield said his client regretted his actions but was realistic enough to expect an immediate prison sentence.
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