Drayton convenience store burglar sentenced to jail

A burglar linked to a convenience store smash-and-grab incident by a blood spatter was sentenced on Friday (8).

Justin Bourton, 43, told Oxford Crown Court through his barrister that he was roped into the break-in at Danes Convenience Store, Drayton, over a three-year-old drug debt. He claimed he had not planned the burglary or even known the other three raiders.

The judge has jailed Bourton for three years.

Earlier, the court was told how a small group of burglars were caught on CCTV smashing their way into Danes Convenience Store, Drayton, at around 2am on July 5 last year. Armed with tools and disguises, they made a “messy snatch and grab”, stuffing £6,158-worth of cigarettes and tobacco into a building waste bag.

“This was a planned operation, a significant quantity of cigarettes were taken, there was soiling or vandalism in the search to get what they could,” prosecutor Henry James said in the court.

Pleading guilty to a non-dwelling burglary, Bourton’s lawyer claimed in the court that he was not involved in planning the burglary. Instead, he said he was roped in at the last moment to pay off a ‘three or four year old’ drug debt. He did not know his fellow larcenists.

Bourton’s lawyer also maintained that her client had long struggled with drugs. Since his last prison sentence, he had managed to hold down a job for 16 months with a building firm.