Penge and Cator Councillors

Here's an interesting on-line report of a success for our Penge & Cator Safer Neighbourhood Team.   (PCSO Pinkney is now training to be a fully fledged PC.   We wish him all the best)

Steadman Hill, 34, unemployed of Harewood Road, South Croydon was sentenced to two years imprisonment at Croydon Crown Court on 29 January 2010 after pleading guilty to burglary.

On 18 November 2009, officers from Bromley were on patrol in the Penge and Beckenham areas of the borough in support of Operation Bumblebee, the MPS burglary initiative.

At approximately 12.40hrs officers received reports of a man acting suspiciously at the rear of a house in Clevedon Road, Beckenham. A man matching the description of the suspect was spotted a short while later in Beckenham High Street, by a PCSO from the Penge and Cator Safer Neighbourhood team who was making his way to the nearest transport hub.

The suspect was pursued by the PCSO attempting to escape via the Beckenham Road Tram Stop, before running into Thayers Farm Road where he was seen to discard a bag. The suspect was apprehended and the discarded bag was retrieved and was found to contain two laptop computers, which were subsequently established to have come from the burgled property.

Hill was charged with burglary on 18 November 2009 and appeared at Bromley Magistrates’ court the following day. The case was committed to Croydon Crown Court, where Steadman pled guilty on 25 January 2010.

Sergeant Rob Goodwin, head of the Penge and Cator Safer Neighbourhood team, said: "The prompt actions of all of the officers involved led to the successful detention of this burglar. PCSO Pinkney "thought like a burglar" - as the Operation Bumblebee advertisements have been urging people to do - and went to the nearest transport hub, where he located the suspect trying to flee the scene. This has resulted in a burglar being removed from our streets and the victim having his property returned to him".