A pensioner with a criminal career spanning half a century as one of the country’s most prolific burglars is back behind bars.

Simon Berkowitz has been jailed for six years after he broke into a retired couple’s home just 16 days after he was given early release from prison.

Berkowitz, from Fourth Avenue, Hove, is best known for trying to sell stolen documents about former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown’s affair with his secretary and has more than 250 convictions across 50 years of offending.

The 68-year-old was released from prison in October last year but quickly went on the run after missing a probation appointment. He had been in jail for a series of burglaries in Hampshire in which he stole antiques.

Berkowitz was dubbed as one of the “most wanted” burglars in the south as detectives across Sussex, Surrey, Kent and Thames Valley police forces searched for him last year. The burglar was travelling to Devon and struck again in Sidmouth.

He broke into the home of John and Ann Searle on Guy Fawkes night last year while they were away on holiday.

Berkowitz was caught on camera when he used the bank cards he had stolen to withdraw £1,100.

Police arrested him in Sidmouth carrying a rucksack containing a burglary kit consisting of metal levers, gaffer tape, two torches and a piece of wire bent into a hook.

Berkowitz denied the burglary charge but admitted five counts of using their bank cards fraudulently.

He said he had no need to steal because he recently inherited £4,000 from his mother after she died during his last jail sentence.

The jury took less than an hour to convict him.

Judge Francis Gilbert told Exeter Crown Court Berkowitz did not feel “the least bit of sympathy” and said it was obvious he had “no regrets or remorse”.

He added he thought burglary was Berkowitz’s “way of life”.

background

SIMON Berkowtiz went on the run after being released early from a five and a half year sentence. The pensioner, then of Marine Parade, Brighton, was due to attend a probation appointment on October 27 after his October 20 release. However he did not show up and Sussex Police appealed to the public that same day to try to trace him. Detective Constable Neill Pye said there was “nothing to suggest” he was committing further offences.

 

A life of crime

Simon Berkowitz first appeared in court when he was just 14 years old.

Convicted of the old charge larceny, the teenager was given a two-year-probation order and ordered to pay 38p in costs at Worthing Juvenile Court.

Little did the judge know the young Berkowtiz would launch into a life of crime with a criminal record reportedly to be ten pages long.

Throughout his life the burglar roamed the south coast, hitting properties across Sussex, Hampshire, Cornwall and Devon – and has been convicted at least 250 times.

He rose to infamy in 1992 when he was accused of stealing notes from a safe detailing the Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown’s affair with a secretary.

He was found not guilty of burglary but was convicted of handling stolen goods after he tried to sell the papers to the News of the World for £30,000.

Berkowitz sent a Christmas card to police in 2011 with the message “crime does pay, just ask any MP or bent copper”.

In 2011 officers told The Argus his convictions were just the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to his crimes and they believed he had committed thousands of burglaries over his half-a-century crime spree.