back to article 'Thickest burglar' leaves passport at scene of raid

The Sun has hailed 48-year-old Kenneth Morgan as Britain's "thickest burglar", after he abandoned his passport at the scene of a break-in. The career criminal was forced to beat a retreat from a property in Acton, West London, when the owner returned home and caught him in the act. He made good his escape through the kitchen …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Laugh ?

    On the one hand, one might be tempted to laugh. I feel quite sad - how desperate is this guy, what sort of education has he had ? There has got to be a problem if, after so many years, he can't even become good at being a criminal.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Wanna borrow my very small violin?

      No sympathy from me. Clearly he didn't get any education (e.g. with no bachelor in burglary), you are supposed to be taught honesty and other social skills way before you graduate. So before anyone is tempted, no blaming the society please.

      If you are genuinely concerned about this poor nice man not being able to carry out a burglary properly, the good news is that since he's been sent to jail for 6 years, he will be out in 2, so leave your address details here so that he can burglar your house in 2 years and 3 weeks. Please leave all valuables on the kitchen table, and leave a note telling what time you plan to go back home.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Not condoning

        We (society) need to be concerend. I don't have sympathy for criminals - if I provided my details then either my 50Kg dog, 4 CCTV cameras or alarm system would catch him out and it'd be a tradegdy for him to waste yet more tax payer's money in court and then in jail.

        Why I'm somewhat sad is why this guy is persisting - it'd be easier for him to serve fast food... despite what we might think, jail can't be that nice and must be quite expensieve compared to a training course and planned rehabilitation.

        Small violin ? I wasn't a fan of M*A*S*H

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Actually, it's not funny.

      The "educated criminals" were also in Court.

      Often known as lawyers.

  2. Tony S
    Coat

    An hour?

    "The jury took an hour to find Morgan guilty..."

    Why?

    Were they laughing so hard that they couldn't make themselves understood. Or were they simply trying to stretch it out so they could get a free lunch?

  3. Flugal
    WTF?

    Battle of the thickest

    'The Sun has hailed 48-year-old Kenneth Morgan as Britain's "thickest burglar", after he abandoned his passport at the scene of a break-in.'

    In other news: The Sun's sister newspaper The News of the World hailed as Britain's "thickest phone hackers" after they abandoned evidence at the scene of various voicemail intercepttions.

  4. ShaggyDoggy

    Jury took an hour

    Presumably it took them 59 minutes to stop laughing

  5. S Larti
    WTF?

    Does it count as burglary

    When you break in just to leave your stuff?

  6. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    These people serve an important social function

    They give everyone with half a brain someone to look down upon.

    A bit like the school for village idiots in Monty Python.

  7. Winkypop Silver badge
    Joke

    No ID card then?

    How did the Police manage?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      clue in the article

      He left a prison id card. that should be enough.

  8. squilookle
    IT Angle

    The Sun again?

    Oh dear...

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

      He left a mobile phone as well

      So there is your IT angle. Compared to him, the phone will have been very smart indeed

      1. squilookle
        Thumb Up

        Thank you for addressing that, sir

        My concern for the poor bugger who has to trawl The Sun for this crap still stands.

  9. tony2heads

    I suspect that he really cannot cope outside jail

    There is a sad aspect to this; this guy seems to have no way of coping in the outside world.

    On the lighter side we ought to have a crime of anti-burglary; getting inside somebody's home

    and dumping all your personal stuff there.

  10. johnnymotel
    Thumb Up

    clearly!

    he prefers prison to the outside world...

    1. John Sturdy
      Unhappy

      Sad but true

      Apparently some people really do --- they've been on the inside so long they've been institutionalized to the extent they can't cope with the world outside, and commit easily detected offences so they can get back in.

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon

        Sir

        Life seems to change so fast that those of us on the outside have trouble keeping up (well, I do at any rate).

        I can't imagine the culture shock of being inside for several years to then be faced with it all in one go, I reckon it must be quite overwhelming.

        Let's not forget that this guy isn't playing with a full deck to start with.

        On the other hand, we don't have infinite resources to molly-coddle those who fall through the cracks of society - it's a thin line to tread, and everyone has their opinion. For example, some people will read this and think it is apologist for the little scrote, others will think I'm arguing for some kind of final solution.

        The simple answer is that there is no simple answer.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          phrase choice

          "final solution" - unfortunate choice of phrase - unless you indeed intended that for all petty criminals

          1. Sir Runcible Spoon

            Sir

            Since I was trying to outline two ends of a scale, I did indeed mean that phrase exactly as you seemed to interpret it.

            I wasn't, however, suggesting it.

  11. mark 63 Silver badge
    Pirate

    what a waste

    waste of taxpayers money

    waste of court / police time

    waste of space scumbag burglar

    deaths to good for em!

    string em up i say!

    if the roman army taught me one thing.......

  12. Fuh Quit
    Thumb Up

    Was he charged with "going equipped"?

    Maybe someone stole his backpack and contents and planted them at the scene?

    It's probably much less hassle inside....ergo his desire to be there.

  13. George Nacht
    Happy

    The bank robber, presenting...

    ...his ID and creditcard in order to get a money from teller at gunpoint, still takes the cake. But amazing story nevertheless.

    I remember similar story from our country, when burglar (certain Mr.Bidlo) was attacked upon entering by flat owner´s german shepherd, who tore away the back pocket from his trousers, containing the driver´s license. Said license was then , according to local papers "proudly presented to police". By aforementioned shepherd, no less.

  14. MGJ

    So...

    As the Sun has it, prison works. Really worked in this case; all those previous convictions have really helped him build a stable life and taught him consequential thinking.

    1. Elmer Phud

      'career criminal'

      Just makes you wonder about the possible upcoming 'apprentice' schemes.

      Some of them must be run by Group4 or whatever bunch of money-grabbing legal crooks get paid to run the prisons these days..

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm concerned here...

    I'm verging on a Dickensian approach... and I know I shouldn't.

    This person is probably in their late 30's early 40's so well past the almost forgivable stupidity of youth and hasn't or can't learn that crime is a 'Bad Thing' and not tolerated by general society of which he attempts to leech. It may be acceptable in the society within which he move but his is not the norm - Is it???

    It seems as though those who society - you and me - have delegated the task of helping him on the straight path can't or won't get the message through to him with the tools they have at their disposal. What other tools can we give them to deal with this inadequate of inconsiderate fool?

    He is a costly little bugger so at what point does society say - enough tries at rehab, he likes prison, lock him up in a safe place for a very long time...

    1. chr0m4t1c

      According to the story

      He's 48, well passed the time he should have cottoned on to what he's doing wrong.

      There's potentially a vicious circle at work here; having spent most of his life behind bars for theft it's probably impossible for him to get a job - after all, it's difficult for honest people in the current climate.

      I know there are people who make a career out of not working, but it may be that he's not one of them and would like to work.

      Of course, it's also possible that he's one of the so-called "hard-core" who grew up in an environment where stealing was just their way of life and no-one in their immediate family thought that it was even slightly unacceptable making this just a way of life.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Police

    TBH I'm just surprised that the police didn't arrest the owner of the house for looking through the bag without permission. They could have secure two convictions to bump up the stats. No doubt the Chief Super will take note.

    A criminal like this isn't going to change, they don't know anything else. They should really be taken somewhere quiet and put out of our misery.

    Don't we have any lead or uranium mines left we can put them to work in?

    1. jonathanb Silver badge

      Re: Police

      Did the house owner look through the bag? In that position, I certainly wouldn't. I wouldn't even touch it in case it destroyed forensic evidence.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Police

        I'm surprised the police didn't just offer the bag to the house owner and issue the "case closed" paperwork, but maybe these were harder-working police than one can sometimes expect to encounter.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does prison work?

    Well, yes I would say it does, in a way. Whilst this worthless scrote is banged up inside he won't be burgaling peoples houses. Will it make him change his ways? Nope.

    Clearly a recidivist and unlikely ever to change, a long prison sentence is what society needs to protect us from scum like him. We defintaely need a two tier prison system. Tier 1 for those who have a hope of becoming law abiding citizens on leaving and therefore provided with training/education/rehabilitaion etc. In other words a prison system to punish but also rehabilitate if possible.

    The second tier should be a much cheaper/basic/harder system for the repeat offenders. Just cater for thier very basic needs and let the buggers rot out their time. Or have them work, chain gangs etc. This is for those with no interest in rehabilitation, for those who simply see the rest of us as mugs to be robbed etc etc.

    Its a pity he won't serve anywhere near the 6 years he has been sentanced to. Unfortunately in this country it seems that the criminal justice system treats criminals better than the victions, in fact treats them as victims of their 'circumstance' or 'addictions' or 'upbringing'. This man might be thick but I doubt he is so thick that he doesn't realise that being a criminal scumbag is wrong. he might not care.... but he can at least understand the concept of offence-consequence, hence is crappy attempt to claim he had been set up.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Impressed

    That with all that evidence that the police managed to arrest the right guy...

    Of course, he could have gone with the "santa claus" defence, that he was just dropping of a gift of a rucksack and mobile...

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Fail

    ...and for a second laugh, take a look at the pic of the guy in the sun

  20. Graham Marsden

    The police cracked the case in "seconds"...

    ... but what it doesn't say is how long it took them to actually *get* to the scene of the crime...

  21. adam.c

    DailyMail/Guardian - fight!

    I think the concerning thing is that situations like this show how sometimes prison isn't enough - either as a deterrent or a rehabilitive solution.

    F.F.S 23 times! - as other posters point out, he's unlikely to change his ways now, the betting money is on containment and control - do you tag him 24/7, issue some kind of control order?

    I confident in the States he'd be banged up for life by now under a 3 strikes law - not that I think they're a road we necessaily want to go down.

    Disclaimer - I, and most of my city resident friends and acquaintances, have been burgled at least once and I don't know a single person who didn't feel the violation of their personal residence was at least as significant than the monetary loss and wouldn't have cheerfully taken a baseball bat to the offender given half a chance. So part of me thinks for violating 23 peoples peace of mind, spending the rest of his life on Rockall with a monthly food drop wouldn't be inhumane.

    .

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Tag them...

      But they should use tags like those in Running Man...

  22. kain preacher

    ward of the state

    This person is to stupid not to be supervised at all times .

  23. Christian Berger

    Wasn't he already in a BBC documentaion?

    Wasn't that in an issue of documentary show "That Mitchell and Wekbb Look"? There he was called the "Identity Murder".

  24. John Stirling

    Daily mail readers unite

    When my family was burgled it took almost as little time to work out who the little scrote was. He was suitably punished. Being about 14 (I was 16 at the time) he was not 'set for life' and as far as I know he has gone straight (as of a few years ago, some 20 years later) It was upsetting, he was quite 'disruptive' in the mess he left, but once the shock had gone we bore him no malice.

    This poor loser sounds like he really doesn't know anything else - the comments on here about 'obviously rehab hasn't helped him' are probably misspoken, it has almost certainly never been tried - and as a thought, why would someone take their personal possessions with them when burglaring? The only reason I can think of is homelessness.

    If I was fresh out of prison, homeless and hopeless I think a quick non violent burglary would be just about the best outcome for all.

    It is all very well pointing out what a hopeless loser he is (and let's face it he is), but he probably has no options now - jobs are not exactly falling from trees for those who do not have to explain big gaps in their work history, the recently incarcerated are stuffed. If we want to get ex cons to go straight we have as a society at least to make it no more difficult than for those of us with a natural disposition to play by the rules.

    Just making prison less pleasant (and I don't personally relish it as it is) isn't going to make a difference, other than to allow the daily mail set to make tutting sounds about recidivists, and how it's 'in their blood'.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There is a simple solution: Punish the reoffending itself.

    Step 1: If you re-offend, the original sentence(s) has/have not worked, so must be done again, in full, in addition to prison time for the new crime.

    Step 2: Persistent criminals will find themselves locked up for exponentially longer times. Times over 5 years to be served in the lowest cost way possible. Outsource to India or Siberia.

    Step 3: 5 crime-free years wipes the slate clean.

    1. adam.c
      Thumb Down

      Flawed

      If not sure what this Fibonacci approach to sentencing is meant to achieve and how.

      If it's meant to make the threat of prison more intimidating since the stakes are higher then I don't see how it would affect this guy. He'd been in prison 23 times - cumulatively he must have spent a great chunk of time out of society anyway and it didn't seem to deter him. In fact other posters have pointed out it possibly made him more likely to offend through being institutionalised.

      Isn’t this similar to the 3 strikes type of approaches tried in other countries – did they work?

      You could try making the conditions less appealing and increasing the deterrence potency – e.g. if you gave every inmate a harmless but painful electric shock every day ala Pavlov, would that strengthen the resolve never to re-offend?

      Also isn’t this just going to increase the prison costs – I don’t see outsourcing to India or Siberia as a low cost option, why are they going to do it except for the opportunity to make a profit?

      Anyway, this all hinges on whether, in the words of a former minister,”Prison Works”. The article shows that for this guy it doesn’t and I’d like to see numbers on how many it does. Without raw data, you can’t determine if you’re putting resources into a cost-effective solution – is it worth tripling the prison bill to get the crime rate down by 2% ? The bulk of crime being committed by a small core of repeat offenders would appeal to a different solution than a profile which described most criminals as low-level habitual

      Side-questions

      1) If someone committed consecutive 4 crimes with raw sentence tariffs of 1 year each, do they get 1, 2, 2, 2 or 1, 2, 3, 4 years – I guess the 2nd as your argument is that the prior *assigned* sentence didn’t work?

      2) If the initial conviction is found to be unsafe, will they be able to claim compensation for the subsequent accumulated years?

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Taht's why they build prisons

    They build prisons for people too stupid to be roaming the streets.

  27. Ben Cooper

    I can beat this...

    The shop next-door to mine used to be a newsagents. One night there was a break-in through the roof, and the burglar got away with a couple of cartons of cigarettes. He left behind a nice leather jacket - and his bail release papers from Hamilton Sheriff Court, with his name and address on them...

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