SERIAL burglar Dalwyn Gayle who repeatedly left his fingerprints at the scenes of his crimes has been jailed for four years. Gayle, 38, had been receiving treatment for his mental health problems, but on the one occasion he was allowed to collect his own

SERIAL burglar Dalwyn Gayle who repeatedly left his fingerprints at the scenes of his crimes has been jailed for four years.

Gayle, 38, had been receiving treatment for his mental health problems, but on the one occasion he was allowed to collect his own benefit's Giro, he used it to buy crack cocaine and went on a burglary spree in Hitchin.

Judge Richard Foster told him today (Thursday): "You have an appalling record for burglary and here you are at it again. The sentence has to reflect the abhorrence that society feels for this sort of offending.

"One of your victims has said how she became petrified about going home for some time and how the many good memories she had of her home have been tainted.

"A psychiatrist has said you show absolutely no remorse or empathy or any sense of responsibility towards society."

Gayle, of Swanstand, Letchworth GC pleaded guilty at Luton Crown Court to two charges of attempted burglary and one of burglary with intent to steal. He asked for six similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Alan Landsbury, prosecuting, said the two properties he attempted to break into were both in Orchard Road, Hitchin.

At the first, on September 16 last year, a dog began barking as he pulled at an open window, alerting the householder.

Three days later he climbed up the drain pipe at another house to try and get in through a bathroom window but was disturbed when the owner came home and fled empty handed.

The following day, he struck again in Walsworth Road, Hitchin. This time he got inside a house and confronted a woman who was cooking in her kitchen. He ran out into the street having taken no property.

The prosecutor said that at all three houses he left his fingerprints and when arrested he made full admissions and told police of other offences he had committed.

Edmund Vickers, defending, said that before this offending Gayle had been living at a residential home under a court imposed mental health order.

"He was normally accompanied to collect his Giro and accompanied back to the home but in September that did not happen and he collected the money himself," said Mr Landsbury.

"He came to Hitchin looking for some cannabis but a so called friend offered him crack cocaine. He succumbed and that got him back on to his hunger for crack cocaine.

"He has a troubling mental illness and his mother wants to take him under her wing and take him to Jamaica which she feels would benefit him.

"The court should show an element of compassion when considering his mental condition and learning difficulties.