Newark business burglar in court after being caught on CCTV

Neighbourhood officers caught a store burglar after trawling through hours of CCTV footage.

Michael Richens has been identified as the man responsible for breaking into two town centre shops last week.

A crowbar was used to try and force entry to a furniture shop and an antique store next door on Thursday (5 December).

Richens was behind the two quickfire burglaries in Lombard Street, which both happened in the early hours of the morning.   

He smashed a window at the antique dealers first but was left empty-handed when his attempts to get inside the building failed.

Undeterred by this, the intruder forced his way into the furniture shop – this time helping himself to an iPad, cash, and an empty phone box.

The break-ins were reported to the police later that day, with officers visiting both stores and others nearby to gather all the available CCTV.

After trawling through hours of footage, police hit the jackpot when they uncovered a five-second clip showing the face of someone rummaging through items.    

Neighbourhood officers recognised that person as Michael Richens and a warrant was subsequently put out for his arrest.

They caught up with him at a Newark address on Sunday (8 December), despite the 42-year-old trying unsuccessfully to hide behind a bedside cabinet.

He was handcuffed soon after that, at which point he admitted there and then to being involved in the Lombard Street break-ins.

In addition to the two burglaries, Richens, of Queens Court, Newark, was charged with fraud by false representation, after using a stolen bank card to buy items.

He pleaded guilty to all three offences during an appearance at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Monday (9 December).

Richens has been released on bail with strict conditions, ahead of his next appearance at Mansfield Magistrates’ Court on 16 January, when he’ll be sentenced.

Sergeant Marcus Bloomfield, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:

“Hours and hours of CCTV footage were viewed by our officers in an attempt to identify the person responsible for these break-ins.

“Thankfully, these searches proved fruitful, with our neighbourhood team managing to identify Richens as the intruder and leave him with no choice but to admit what he’d done.

“We completely appreciate the damage to people’s livelihoods commercial burglaries of this nature cause, so will always do everything in our power to try and catch any culprits.  

“Our promise as a team is that we’ll continue doing this going forward, to ensure thieves like Richens don’t get away with their actions.”