Benjamin Zachery Burgess (30) was jailed for three years, seven months before the Dunedin District Court last year after targeting homes and stealing about $300,000 of items.
Judge Kevin Phillips, who sentenced him, said it was almost impossible to calculate the loss due to the sheer scale of the haul.
Police immediately got an idea of the magnitude of Burgess’ criminality when they raided his home in mid-2018 and uncovered more than 600 stolen items.
The prisoner, serving his time at the Otago Corrections Facility, made his first appearance before the Parole Board at the end of last year, details of which have recently been provided to the Otago Daily Times.
"The facts of his dishonesty offending were especially serious," board chairman Sir Ron Young said.
He noted Burgess had six pages of previous convictions which included similar property offences, as well as violence and drugs.
The prisoner, the board heard, was close to completing the Drug Treatment Programme and scheduled to undertake the Medium Intensity Rehabilitation Programme.
Burgess remained an undue risk to the public until that work was completed, Sir Ron said.
The man had suffered a head injury while serving a previous stint behind bars and was undergoing counselling with a mental health worker.
Each burglary Burgess committed followed a similar method.
He and a co-defendant — who has pleaded not guilty — would draw the curtains of a house and systematically scour the place for valuables.
One Belleknowes home was stripped of $15,000 of camera equipment, clothing, electronics and tools and owners were left with a huge clean-up job.
Burgess and his mate doused the floor of the home in soy sauce and powdered it with flour before smashing a television, the court heard at sentencing.
Among the masses of stolen goods were: a telescope, a $50,000 Audi, three children’s motorcycles, whiteware, a traditional Russian instrument, a mandolin and an entire sound system.
"It seems that you knew that people were away for periods of days or weeks, somehow," Judge Phillips said.
Burgess was also sentenced for punching a 5-year-old in the stomach and striking his partner.
Sir Ron said the prisoner would need to arrive at his next hearing in September with a reintegration plan if he wanted early release.
Burgess’ sentence ends in January 2023.
