Inside the hunt for career criminal behind burglary crime wave
Police in County Durham have had their work cut out hunting career burglar Michael Dodsworth, who has a string of convictions.
Thursday 9 August 2018 08:02, UK
Michael Dodsworth was released from prison early like so many inmates each year.
With prisons already overcrowded early release is a necessary evil to ease the pressure on a creaking system.
The 22 year-old, a career burglar with a string of previous convictions, is back to his old tricks.
Since his release there have been a spate of burglaries in Dodsworth's home town of Darlington, County Durham, and police know he is behind at least one of them because he was caught red handed on his victim's CCTV camera.
Detective Inspector Sharon Alderson is in charge of a small team of officers whose job it is to catch the young man.
"The purpose of this operation is to get our number one most wanted because we've had a number of burglaries overnight," she tells colleagues at a morning briefing.
DI Alderson and her team are under pressure to catch Dodsworth and others like him.
Nationally, only 3% of burglaries are solved and although Durham fairs better - solving about 18% - that's still too low, according to Home Office targets.
"We have an idea of the area that Dodsworth is in," says DI Alderson. "Burglary is one of those crimes that has a real impact on people. It's a priority crime for us. We just need to make sure we all get in the right position so we can nab him when he shows himself."
Dodsworth should not even be in Darlington because the terms of his early release stated that he should live 100 miles up the road in Northumberland. He's already in breach of those conditions and is now a wanted man.
Detectives have six possible addresses to visit and they hope to find the burglar at one of them. DI Alderson has had to approve overtime payments for at least four officers because resources are too stretched to take constables from other duties.
She says: "We are constantly weighing up risk and resources - what risk does this lad pose and should we throw resources at tracking him down."
A convoy of uniformed and plain clothes officers set off to find Dodsworth.
The first address is in the middle of a well-known housing estate in Darlington.
PC Chris Jones, one of the unformed officers assigned to the hunt, goes around the back of the property.
It seems quiet until he gets animated and turns his radio from his shoulder to his mouth and alerts his colleagues around the front: "He's at the back of the address, I can see him! He's gone into the house."
There's a rush to move in on the property.
PC Jones vaults a fence, then a wall, then another fence. Officers at the front enter the house and scatter to different rooms with two detectives heading straight up the stairs before splitting, one to the left, the other to the right.
PC Jones is adamant that Dodsworth is in the house, but he's nowhere to be seen.
They search behind doors and under beds, inside wardrobes and in the bathroom. Nothing.
Then there's a creak from above their heads and the team head towards the loft hatch.
PC Jones, torch in hand, peers into the attic and sweeps the area with his torch.
Crouched down, wrapped in dusty insulation, PC Jones' torch picks out the pale torso of Dodsworth.
"I can see you hidden under there fella, come downstairs," PC Jones says.
Darlington's one-man crime wave has been ended. He's cuffed and led away.
He later admitted two counts of burglary and is waiting to hear the sentence he will get.
DI Alderson says: "It's frustrating. How long will he get? How long will he serve? It'll not be long before we're doing this all over again."
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