A BURGLAR who raided a Farnham home while the owner was out was caught after he left a bag full of medication with his name on, a court heard last week (Friday). Steven Ferguson, 27, stole £4,000 worth of items including two watches, a decorative dagger, and sunglasses, but left the pills outside the front door in Borelli Mews when he made his escape. Police discovered the name of the culprit written on the labels and arrested Ferguson after finding him wearing one of the watches. The drug addict, of no fixed address, was jailed for 14 months at Guildford Crown Court after pleading guilty to burglary. Jill Beale, prosecuting, told the court that the occupier had left the property at 7am on June 19 this year, and when his cleaner arrived later in the day she did not notice anything was wrong. The owner returned at 3.45pm and became curious when he noticed a rubbish bag containing medication near the front door. Mrs Beale said: "He then began to pay more attention to his surroundings and noticed there was damage to a fridge door and a number of items had been taken. "The police, having been presented with these various items of medication, were able to track him down." The court heard that Ferguson had burgled another home two days before and had told officers he had sold most of the items to fund his drug habit. Lisa Goddard, defending, said that Ferguson - who had been in custody since his arrest - wants to stay in prison to continue a drugs rehabilitation programme. She said: "He says at the time of this offence he was at the height of his drug use. He really had very little idea of what was going on, living purely to feed his habit day in and day out." The court heard that the defendant worked as a roofer before he became in the grip of a vicious heroin addiction. Judge Michael Addison said: "These offences are so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified. "The reason of course being that burglary in a dwelling house causes great distress to those who suffer from it, and indeed great anxiety and expense to those who live in fear of it happening to them."
