'Third strike' burglar jailed

A burglar who admitted to a drunken break-in he could not remember has been jailed.
Justin Lake, aged 20, of HMP Brinsford, broke into a house in Terrace Walk, Norwich on 8 March 2023 taking a ring and two credit cards.
He was linked to the crime by a fingerprint left on a window frame.
During police questioning he accepted that forensic evidence placed him at the scene but that he was too drunk to remember and likely just wanted more cash to carry on with his drinking spree.
At the time Lake had been staying at a hotel in Swaffham where documents and property were found linking him to two other offences.
These were a house burglary in London Street, Swaffham on 6/7 March 2023 where he stole bank cards and a pedal cycle, and a theft from a motor vehicle of bank cards in Kensington Place, Norwich on 7/8 March.
These were taken into consideration by Norwich Crown Court at his sentencing on 4 September 2024.
He was jailed on 27 March 2023 for unrelated offences and it was while in prison he was visited by staff investigator Duncan Etchells and questioned about the Norfolk offences which he admitted.
As a third-striker – someone who has been convicted of burglary on at least three occasions including at least once as an adult - he was handed a mandatory sentence of 876 days, just under two years and five months.