Artur Adam Pinkowski (40) was sentenced to three years and will face deportation after what the Crown prosecution claimed was ‘a criminal spree’, committing two breaking and entries and two attempted breaking and entries in a six-week period. All but one of the offences involved unoccupied domestic properties. The female victim of one of the burglaries, in which Pinkowski stole cash and jewellery to the value of £4,500, said that she was shocked and traumatised and could not sleep because she was scared she might be targeted again. Another woman was at home when Pinkowski opened the front door and stepped inside. He spoke to her in German and then fled the house with another male. Crown Advocate Julian Gollop said that Pinkowski claimed to have come to the Island for employment, but that since his contract with construction company Deerglen had come to an end in June he had planned to live off the proceeds of his criminal escapades. He said that Pinkowksi had an ‘exceptionally poor’ criminal record, having committed six similar offences in Poland and Germany, where he spent three years in prison. On that basis, the advocate said, Pinkowski should be deported once his sentence comes to an end. He said: ‘This Island has no place for such persons. He has come to the Island purportedly for employment reasons but has blatantly and cynically abused not only the hospitality of this Island, but also the homes and security of this Island’s law-abiding citizens. ‘There can be no argument that his continued presence is detrimental to the community of this Island.’ Pinkowski’s defence lawyer, Advocate Lewis Buckley, refuted the Crown’s suggestion that Pinkowski had undertaken a criminal spree, telling the court that the offences were opportunistic. ‘To say he undertook a criminal spree is an overstatement of the offending as a whole,’ he said. There were four offences committed over a six-week period and there was no particular pattern to the offending. It could be more properly described as sporadic and opportunistic.’ Advocate Buckley also stressed that the offences had occurred in broad daylight, that no violence was used and that three of the four properties had been unoccupied. But Royal Court Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith told Pinkowski: ‘Breaking into a private dwelling has the most distressing effect. This court has to consider the effects of these burglaries on the lives of innocent people. We would not go so far as to say that you are a professional thief, but you are clearly very experienced, and we believe that your continued presence would have a detrimental effect on this Island.’ The Commissioner was sitting with Jurats Tibbo and Clapham.
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