Three jailed for Stockport burglary spree

Three men who carried out a string of burglaries have been jailed for a total of 34 years.

Owen Edwards, 21, Michael Goddard, 32, and Kyle Warburton, 24, carried out the two-day burglary spree at homes in Marple, Mellor and Offerton, in Greater Manchester, in December last year.

In the early hours of 29 December 2021, the rear patio door window of a house in Marple was smashed using a sundial from the garden. The car keys and house keys were taken from the kitchen table. The occupants heard a noise and saw their BMW being reversed down their driveway and away.

Within 48 hours of the BMW being stolen in a burglary in Marple Bridge it was involved in a high-speed police chase from Cheshire to Stockport, where all three men were arrested.

In the early hours of 30 December, the front door window was smashed at a house in Offerton. The owner heard a noise and when he checked his security camera footage, he saw three men in dark clothing near his car, one of the men was holding a large machete and another threw the brick repeatedly against the front door. They left empty handed. The burglars arrived and left the scene in the stolen BMW.

At 9.30pm on 30 December a downstairs window was smashed at a house in Mellor. The homeowner, who was at home with his teenage daughter, found four men dressed in dark clothing in the living room. He punched one of them whilst another man waved a machete at him. They followed him through the house demanded the keys to his VW Golf before they all jumped back out of the broken window and sped off in the stolen car.

In the early hours of 31 December Cheshire police saw the stolen BMW in Handforth, Cheshire, speed away from them. A pursuit saw the BMW reach speeds of up to 120mph which was tracked by a police helicopter, before the car was abandoned on Cale Street in Stockport. Owen Edwards, Michael Goddard and Kyle Warburton fled from the car and were arrested following a short foot chase.

Carl Miles for CPS North West said: “These three men carried out a terrifying armed burglary and two of them other serious burglaries over two days. The fact that homeowners were present was no deterrent to them; they had no regard for the distress their actions would cause in their pursuit of greed.

“One man who was home with his teenage daughters when he was threatened with a machete and chased through the house said in his victim impact statement how he was shocked, stunned, terrified, petrified and traumatised at the lengths anyone would go to for a car.

“Everyone deserves to feel safe and secure in their own homes. The sentences passed today mean that three very dangerous men are off the streets.”