A BURGLAR who stole his victim’s savings after finding £3,000 under a mattress while raiding his house is back behind bars.

Joseph Curley, 49, used a hammer to smash his way into the property in Fields Park Road, Newport, when the owner was out.

After prosecutor David Pugh said the serial burglar came across the large amount of cash under the mattress, Judge DJ Hale told him: “That was a bit of a bingo moment for the defendant.”

Curley, who has 52 previous convictions for 127 offences, including 15 for house burglaries, also stole a tub with £300 in £1 coins.

Mr Pugh read out the victim’s impact statement which said: “Prior to this incident, I would describe myself as a confident, happy-go-lucky person and I had never considered mental health to be an issue.

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“Because of this incident, I spent six weeks off on sickness from work.

“This was because of the prolonged effect of somebody breaking into my house has had.

“I have become neurotic in my approach to my home, checking each room so that no one has broken in again, and this has caused me to suffer from anxiety and depression.”

The victim added: “I have worked hard all my life, working six days a week to ensure I was able to own a beautiful home like the one I live in.

“I never thought I would leave my home but there have been times in the last 18 months when I considered selling up because of how unsafe I felt and violated that a stranger, who had no right, took it upon himself to enter my home and take my property.”

Curley, formerly of Newport, now of Parc Prison, Bridgend, pleaded guilty to burglary, the offence taking place between 7.30am and 6.30pm on March 7, 2020.

Byron Broadstock, representing the defendant, told Cardiff Crown Court his client was homeless at the time of the burglary after his marriage had broken down.

Judge Hale told Curley: “You are a persistent burglar.

“You must have thought it was your lucky day when you found the wallet under the mattress containing £3,000.

“I’ve got to reflect how important that £3,000 was to the man who lost it, the man who had saved it, the man who had worked for it.

“You haven’t worked for it because you just chanced on it when you burgled his house.

“Your record is littered by burglary after burglary, sentence after sentence.”

Curley was jailed for three years.