Mobile phone snap of burglar Lee Taylor leads to capture

Feb 26 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

MOST burglars are happy to make a quick getaway with their ill-gotten gains.

But Lee Taylor and his accomplice took time out from their illegal activities to pose with a bottle of Cognac for a mobile phone snap.

The image was one of a series of clues which led to the 20-year-old being locked up for two years yesterday after he admitted breaking into a Huddersfield house while the owners were on holiday and taking their high-value Audi A3.

Bradford Crown Court heard that during the burglary in Holly Bank Road, Lindley, last May the intruders stole two lap-tops, sat-nav equipment, a camera and the keys to Audi worth £17,500.

But prosecutor Rebecca Young said it was discovered that a bottle of Cognac had been left out on a cupboard in the kitchen suggesting someone had poured themselves a glass.

The car was driven away from the house, but in the early hours it was seen travelling at high speed before crashing into lamp post and fencing near to a mill on Crossley Lane, Dalton.

Miss Young said the Audi was written off and a witness saw two men fleeing the scene.

When the police arrived at the crash an officer recovered a mobile phone from the vehicle and discovered the image of Taylor and his accomplice posing for the camera.

His fingerprints were found in the damaged Audi and when he was finally arrested by the police about four months after the burglary, his footwear matched an imprint left in the kitchen of the house.

The court heard that Taylor, of Sherwood Avenue, Bradley, Huddersfield, had committed a previous house burglary when he was just15 and in March 2008 he was locked up for 18 months for conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine.