Man jailed for three years for Kendal burglaries (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Man jailed for three years for Kendal burglaries

11:02am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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A MAN who burgled eight houses in Kendal in the space of little over an hour has been sent to prison for three years.

Mark Pepperd, 30, struck in the early evening of October 30 last year, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

He targeted houses in High Fellside, Cliff Terrace, Rosemary Lane, Rosemary Hill and Serpentine Road, and went inside any whose doors he found to be unlocked.

In three of them he was confronted by the startled householders, some of them described by the judge as “vulnerable”

The court heard that in High Fellside he came face to face on the doorstep with Gillian Murphy, who heard noises and thought they were from her daughter, whom she was expecting, In Cliff Terrace he confronted another retired lady, Jean Mant, 84, at her front door, then went round and confronted her daughter Louise at the back door.

Louise Mant managed to take a photograph of him with her mobile phone, which assisted the police in their investigation.

Pepperd struck at three houses in Serpentine Road, and in one of them he was seen by Graham Patten, who “sent him off with a flea in his ear”.

Throughout the evening he got away with various purses, wallets cameras and small amounts of cash.

Police arrested him after a chase down Sepulchre Lane, after spotting him in Serpentine Road following a 999 call from Mrs Mount.

Pepperd, who comes from Wigan but has no fixed address, pleaded guilty to eight charges of burglary. He had 99 previous convictions.

In mitigation defence barrister Alison Whalley said Pepperd had mental health problems, though he was not too ill to understand what he was doing.

She said he came from a “supportive family”, although his parents now refused to have him living with them.