Psychological assessment ordered for burglar with more than 200 convictions

Glen Anthony Billington at an earlier court appearance. File photo / NZME

A recidivist burglar with more than 200 convictions has been sent back to prison after using a grinder to access a Napier business during the night.

Glen Anthony Billington, 49, first went to prison at a young age and has never been able to get out of the criminal justice system, Judge Bridget Macintosh said in the Napier District Court yesterday.

In his latest burglary, he used a grinder to cut the metal bars on an office window at Classique Plastics early on May 25 this year.

He also used the grinder to cut the hinges on a safe that contained about $3000, the court was told.

He was disturbed, however, when a worker arrived to start an early shift.

Judge Macintosh noted that Billington had a "pretty difficult time of it", having been in state care as a child, and he was affected by fetal alcohol syndrome.

She said Billington did not really know how to live in the community.

Judge Macintosh sent Billington to prison for 17 months and ordered that he undergo a psychological assessment as part of his release conditions.

Home detention was not an option as Billington did not have a suitable address.

Billington had $2882 in fines remitted, but was ordered to pay $2500 in reparations for damage caused during the burglary.

When Billington appeared in court in 2019, it was said that he had more than 200 convictions, about two-thirds of them for burglary.

In 2004, Billington was sentenced to six years in jail for a spree of burglaries.

He was sentenced to a further five years and eight months in jail in 2012 for similar offending.