A MAN has been jailed after he carried out a series of distraction burglaries across the West Midlands.
Bernard McDonagh has been jailed for over 10 offences which included burglary and being unlawfully at large.
A man hunt was launched in September last year following numerous reports of distraction burglaries taking place in Solihull, Birmingham, Sandwell and Wolverhampton.
West Midlands Police said the distraction burglaries were particularly targeting elderly victims.
McDonagh would pretend to be a worker for the local authority, or purporting to work for energy companies, where he would then trick the victims to let him into their property to carry out checks.
Instead, he callously burgled their homes.
Police carried out a warrant at an address in South Yardley, Birmingham, in October, and he was arrested.
The 60-year-old, of no fixed address, was charged with multiple offences.
McDonagh – after refusing to appear in the dock for sentencing – was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to the offences.
He was given a prison sentence of eight years and six months.
Det Sgt, Chloe Morgan, from Birmingham Police, said: “This spate of burglaries had a devastating impact on the victims across the West Midlands.
“McDonagh carried out meticulously planned offences on victims that he knew he would be able to prey on. This preying on older victims shows his nature, but thankfully, we were able to quickly begin a hunt for him and detain him.
“Thanks to the hard work of the officers investigating, we were able to build a case against McDonagh and quickly charged him.
“He is clearly a highly dangerous individual and it is a good thing for the public that he is now off the streets.
“Hopefully, the people he has harmed through his history of offending can gain some comfort from the knowledge he has been brought to justice.”
