Criminal's ill gotten gains auctioned

BOOTY from a career criminal's crime spree across Suffolk and Norfolk is being auctioned off by police.More than 200 lots went under the hammer last week, and they are only part of the haul of burglar Michael Thwaites.

BOOTY from a career criminal's crime spree across Suffolk and Norfolk is being auctioned off by police.

More than 200 lots went under the hammer last week, and they are only part of the haul of burglar Michael Thwaites.

Now, a further 200 lots are to be sold because police cannot trace the rightful owners.

Although most of the goods are of relatively low value, it is believed that selling off the estimated 1,000 to 1,200 items could net up to �15,000.

Thwaites, of St John's Street, Lowestoft, was sentenced to eight years in prison at Chelmsford Crown Court in September 2005. He was convicted of seven burglaries in 2004, at Woodbridge, Saxmundham, Hales-worth, and Kessingland, and three others in Norfolk. The court was told then that he had started burgling when he was 13 years old and had also been convicted of an attempted burglary at Lowestoft.

More than 100 lots of jewellery and 60 collectable figures were offered at last week's sale by Clowes and Nash at Swardeston, near Norwich. The 203 lots were part of the haul seized from Thwaites's home and from his second-hand shop in London Road South in the town.

Suffolk Constabulary said the exact sum raised would not be known until further auctions had taken place.

Half of the money made will go to the government: the rest will be split between the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts.