Sheffield Crown Court: Serial burglar jailed after targeting wheelchair-bound man

Sheffield Crown Court heard on September 15 how 39-year-old James Dixon had persuaded his victim to let him into his adapted flat on Shaftesbury Square, near Eastwood, Rotherham, so he could get some water before he refused to leave and stole a set of miniature whiskeys.

Stephanie Hollis, prosecuting, said the wheelchair-bound complainant who suffers with cerebral palsy saw Dixon peering at him through railings in his garden and after his carer left the defendant appeared at his door with a bottle asking for water.

Ms Hollis added that after Dixon had been allowed into the complainant’s bathroom he sat down in his lounge, looked at his computer and he was captured on a security camera link to his mother’s home but he refused to leave until he stole four miniature bottles of whiskey.

Recorder Angela Frost told Dixon: “You went into the living room that he occupied and made yourself at home. You sat down in the living room and looked at items in the flat.

“It’s fortunate for the complainant in this case that he had cameras in his living room that enabled his mother to see what was going on.”

Dixon was identified from a DNA match taken from a bottle in the complainant’s sink and the mother of the complainant had seen what was happening via the security camera at the property, according to Ms Hollis.

Ms Hollis said: “She said she is disgusted by the man’s behaviour and he preyed upon her son’s vulnerabilities and he had waited for the carer to leave and it has left her son frightened and it has affected his confidence and her own confidence.”

Dixon, of no fixed abode, who has had 34 court appearances for 98 offences including robberies and burglaries, pleaded guilty to the burglary which happened on June 11, last year.

The court also heard that Dixon had only just been released from prison on June 4, 2021, for an offence of burglary when he preyed upon his latest victim seven days later.

Defence barrister Richard Adams said Dixon has had issues with substance abuse and after he had been released from custody following his previous offence there was an incident at his new accommodation and he became homeless.

Mr Adams added: “Whilst it would have been obvious to him that the victim was disabled what is perhaps telling is that all that was taken was a set of miniature spirits.”

Recorder Frost said Dixon had targeted the complainant because of his vulnerabilities and he had taken advantage of those vulnerabilities.

She told him: “You have for a long period of time been in a cycle of offending behaviour – largely stealing, some of that stealing with violence. Your more recent antecedent history involves a large number of burglaries – all thefts from dwellings.”

Recorder Frost who sentenced him to three years of custody also told him: “This behaviour is a sorry, sorry picture and I understand what has been said on your behalf with the difficulties such males face when being released from custody but this is a cycle that has to stop.”