Police release picture of a jailed burglar who raided a Sheffield Hallam University student's home

A serial Sheffield burglar has been jailed for more than two years and five months after he raided a student’s home and stole his car.
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Sheffield Crown Court heard on October 28 how Dean Patten, aged 28, of Follett Road, Shiregreen, Sheffield, got into the student’s accommodation while he was asleep with friends and stole a wallet and car keys.

Adam Keenaghan, prosecuting, said the Sheffield Hallam University student had been out with friends and they had stayed overnight at his student accommodation.

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Mr Keenaghan added that the student went to bed but when he woke his wallet and car keys were gone.

Pictured is serial burglar Dean Patten, aged 28, of Follett Road, near Shiregreen, Sheffield, who pleaded guilty to a dwelling burglary and to the theft of a vehicle in Sheffield and was sentenced to just over two years and five months of custody.Pictured is serial burglar Dean Patten, aged 28, of Follett Road, near Shiregreen, Sheffield, who pleaded guilty to a dwelling burglary and to the theft of a vehicle in Sheffield and was sentenced to just over two years and five months of custody.
Pictured is serial burglar Dean Patten, aged 28, of Follett Road, near Shiregreen, Sheffield, who pleaded guilty to a dwelling burglary and to the theft of a vehicle in Sheffield and was sentenced to just over two years and five months of custody.

Recorder Peter Hampton said: “He had gone to bed and put his car keys and wallet by his desk. At 11.30am the next morning they had gone. Someone in the house thought they had heard the door handle being tried but thought nothing of it.”

The student also went to the Devonshire Green car park where he had left his VW Polo to discover it too had gone missing, according to Mr Keenaghan, but it was later found at Cross House Road, Grenoside, with the defendant’s DNA on the gearbox.

Recorder Hampton told Patten: “You were identified through CCTV and a DNA hit from the vehicle.”

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Patten, who has previous convictions including numerous burglaries, pleaded guilty to the dwelling burglary and to the theft of a vehicle after the incident on June 1.

Lucy Hogarth, defending, said: “Mr Patten’s record speaks alone about the nature of his offending. It has always been drug-related and has always been acquisitive crime with the background of a drug addiction.”

Patten had moved from London to Sheffield and worked as a barman and began associating with people using drugs, according to Ms Hogarth, and then he worked at the Pretty Little Things warehouse.

Ms Hogarth added that the cards in the wallet had been cancelled and could not be used and the vehicle had only been used by Patten to drive himself home.

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She said: “He has let himself down and he knows that because he had worked very hard not to put himself back in this position.”

Recorder Hampton sentenced Patten to 876 days of custody, which is just over two years and five months.