'Prolific' burglar jailed for £3k crime spree

A prolific burglar who discharged himself from hospital after a serious crash so he could commit further crimes, has been jailed for more than six years.

George Dunn, 42, broke into five properties in Tonbridge, Cranbrook, Paddock Wood and Ashford, stealing items including jewellery, watches, bank cards and even war medals, worth more than £3,000.

Dunn, from Quarry Road in Maidstone, Kent, was arrested on 15 October and charged with six counts of burglary and multiple traffic offences.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on Tuesday to six years for burglary and nine months for dangerous driving.

Police found a glove belonging to Dunn at one of the properties he burgled and traces of his blood at another.

In the early hours of 20 July, Dunn crashed his car into a wall and then a fence in Bayhall Road, Tunbridge Wells, while disqualified from driving and driving without insurance.

He was in a life-threatening condition, police said, but still tried to flee from the scene, despite being trapped inside the vehicle.

Paramedics took him to a hospital in London but he left on 1 September before he was medically fit to be interviewed by police about the crash.

The following month, Dunn burgled a sixth home, this time in Sissinghurst Road, Biddenden, where a person living nearby saw him falling out of a window.

At court, Dunn pleaded guilty to six counts of burglary, one of dangerous driving, one of driving while disqualified and one of driving without insurance.

He also admitted committing eight further burglaries that were being investigated by police, though these were not brought as official charges.

In a separate case, he pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine, driving while disqualified, careless driving, driving without insurance and failing to provide a blood specimen.

Det Insp Lisa Featherstone, from Kent Police, said: "Dunn is a prolific offender who was determined to continue committing these invasive crimes.

"Not even a life changing injury deterred him, and he discharged himself from hospital to not only try and evade the consequences of his actions but to continue offending."