A DRUG addict burglar who broke into a church has admitted a string of crowbar raids on Worcester businesses to fund his habit.

Nicholas Dutfield, already serving a prison sentence for burgling a church, pleaded guilty to nine further city burglaries when he appeared over videolink from prison at Worcester Crown Court on Friday.

The 49-year-old, who carried out his first burglary in 1984, raided Memorials in Worcester, Cyber Q Escape Rooms in Lowesmoor Wharf, the Swan Theatre in The Moors and Quanta Training, also in The Moors, on a single day - November 26 last year.

Dutfield, now a prisoner at HMP Featherstone, burgled Cyber Q Escape Rooms again on December 6 last year, the freezer unit at Worcester Racecourse on December 8 last year and Ostlers in Severn Terrace on December 8 last year.

He committed another burglary at Worcester Racecourse, this time at the medical room, on December 11 last year and a yet another, again at Ostlers, on December 15 last year.

During the raid at Memorials he broke in through an office window, causing £400 of damage and stole a petty cash tin with around £70 inside.

Richard Franck, prosecuting, said Dutfield was recognised from the CCTV with a rucksack and a crowbar which ‘seems to be his modus operandi’.

In his first burglary at the Cyber Q Escape Rooms he broke in through the entrance door stealing £93.20 from a cash box and an iPhone. Again, police were able to identify him from CCTV.

Dutfield entered the Swan by breaking in via the fire escape and broke two doors though no reports were made of anything being stolen. Nothing was reported stolen from the raid at Quanta or from

his second raid the Cyber Q Escape Rooms after the defendant broke in through a fire door,

An unknown quantity of meat was stolen from the racecourse freezer unit at 2.57am on December 8. The defendant raided Ostlers, breaking in using a crowbar and causing £130 of damage. He stole £150 from a kitty jar, a £100 tablet and a £500 iPhone. It was considered an aggravating feature that the owner was living upstairs at the time.

Dutfield stole two televisions of value unknown when he returned to the racecourse, this time breaking into the medical room, on December 11 last year, leaving his DNA at the scene.

Dutfield returned to Ostlers on December 15, just a week after the first raid, and stole the £200 float but was arrested escaping the scene.

He answered no comment in police interview. The owner at Ostlers said in a victim personal statement: “I find it very unsettling to think somebody had been downstairs while I was asleep.”

He also said the business was an independent rather than a large financial chain, increasing the impact. Mr Franck said the defendant had ‘tooled himself up with a crowbar’ and said his previous convictions were ‘enormously aggravating’.

He added: “His offending is to feed his drugs habit.”

Dutfield has 64 offences of burglary on his record, largely targeting commercial premises but also 10 house burglaries. These do not include the 19 TICs (taken into consideration) for similar offences which Dutfield has admitted during a burglary career which began in 1984.

We have previously reported how Dutfield burgled Freedom Church in Lowesmoor, Worcester on November 23 last year, breaking into the safe which cost £370 to replace before making off with an iPod Touch worth £159, an iPad worth £289 and £96 in cash. The defendant was jailed for two years and two months in March this year.

He also raided the Vision Factory opticians on September 12 last year during which cameras were pulled off the walls and left on the floor.

Abigail Nixon, defending, said she did not concede that any of the burglaries were category one (the most serious) and urged the judge to consider the case of Manning which means judges should consider the Covid-19 crisis and harsher prison regime when sentencing.

Recorder David Mason QC said: “It’s a shame that you weren’t sentenced for all these matters back in March when you were for sentenced for the other matters.”

The judge jailed him for 20 months. This will run concurrently with the prison sentence he is already serving which means he will be released around June next year, around the time he would have been released in any event having served the previous sentence.