Hawke's Bay laundromat burglar gets chance to clean up his act

Glen Anthony (Tony) Billington pictured during one of his previous appearances in court. He was back in court today. Photo / File

For a man with 129 convictions for burglary it was hardly an illustrious return to form for a serial housebreaker.

After jemmying a cash box in a laundromat, Glen Anthony (Tony) Billington, 46, was locked inside by the proprietor, with the $12 he took from the box.

But now Billington has a chance to clean up his act, after appearing in the Napier District Court today, after he was charged with stealing the $12.

Billington hadn't had any other known offences in the past eight years, leading to defence counsel Eric Forster classifying the latest failed mission as a "relapse".

But Judge Tony Adeane noted that imprisonment had a role to play in that, with Billington having been sentenced in 2012 to five years and eight months in jail with a minimum term of three years.

The jail time was for six household burglaries in which Billington took advantage of people's absences from home during the week spanning New Year's day.

He had stolen property worth $33,000.

There had also been a lengthy period in custody since the laundromat burglary, which began when Billington entered the premises and jemmied-open a cash box, and ended when he was locked-in by the proprietor and held until police arrived.

With a criminal career now spanning more than 30 years, Billington's worst hour was in 2004, when, with 14 jail terms behind him, he was sentenced to six years jail for three burglaries which occurred in the first four months after his latest release.

Noting the relative lower-level of the latest offence, Judge Adeane today wondered whether in determining a penalty he should take a starting point of three months jail "... with an uplift of nine years and nine months."

The judge decided it was time for the intervention of psychological services, which hadn't been available earlier in the career of Billington, who as well as his 129 burglary convictions has had about 50 others for dishonesty offences.

Billington was sentenced to 12 months' intensive supervision, a community-based rehabilitation model which can an offender to a specific residential address, prohibit entry to specified places and association with specific people or groups, direct attendance at rehabilitation programmes, and other steps aimed at breaking the cycle of offending.