A recidivist criminal with 18 burglaries to his name is back behind bars.
Mark Anthony Roskam (41) was jailed for two years and 10 months when he appeared before the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
Judge Michael Turner revealed the extent of the defendant's "shocking" criminal history: 18 convictions for burglary, 11 for receiving, 15 for unlawfully taking vehicles and 44 thefts, mainly from vehicles.
Roskam admitted a charge of burglary, which he committed on March 24, 2017.
He tried to break into a family's Canongate home through the back door and when that failed, he forced a window open and hauled himself inside.
Roskam scoured the house for valuables and came away with a laptop and notebooks which contained the victims' passwords for various accounts.
When he got home, the defendant found the password and unlocked the electronic device.
He deleted all of the family's personal information - including photos - and set his own password.
A police examination of the burglary scene turned up a palm print which was matched to Roskam and officers executed a search warrant at his home more than a month after the break-in.
The three officers involved were aware the man had been released from prison for a previous burglary five months earlier, court documents said.
When they informed Roskam they were looking for a computer associated with a Canongate address, the suspect reached under his bed and pulled out the item.
He was arrested and taken to the station by a senior constable, but the other officers remained.
The subject of what happened next was heard by the High Court and a challenge was then lodged with the Court of Appeal.
Defence counsel Deborah Henderson and Sarah Saunderson-Warner argued the powers of the search warrant had effectively ended once Roskam handed over the item police were seeking.
But the search did not end.
A detective noticed bags under the defendant's bed and other electronic equipment was also visible.
The officers gathered another 47 items from the room they believed had been stolen.
Seven of those could be traced back to a Dundas St burglary, and Roskam was charged with receiving stolen goods.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the "seizure of those items did not overreach into an illicit invasion of privacy".
Once the appeal had been dismissed Roskam pleaded guilty and Judge Turner gave him limited credit for that belated acceptance.
The defendant was ordered to pay $200 reparation.
