A prolific burglar has been jailed for eight years after being linked to some of his crimes by the SelectaDNA Secure Asset Register.
Billy Hodge was convicted of 27 theft and burglary offences including the theft of garden machinery and tools valued at around £6,000 from a private school in Surrey.
Surrey Police later recovered the tools while conducting a search at Hodge's home address. They were able to trace them back to the school after tamper-proof TESA labels used on the equipment led police to run a check on our Secure Asset Register (SAR).
SAR allows police and members of the public to register valuable possessions to an online account, using unique identifying marks such as serial numbers. SAR is tested and certified to the Loss Prevention Certification Board’s LPS1224 Issue 3, and it is the only property database to hold this sought-after standard.
PCSO Vicky Seymour from Surrey Police, confirmed how SelectaDNA’s Secure Asset Register helped convict Hodge: “You assisted our case with a prolific burglar by providing owner details to a serial number. With your help, Billy Hodge was yesterday (23rd Jan 2020) sentenced to 8 years in prison for 27 burglary and theft offences in Surrey and Sussex. Without your help this wouldn’t have been possible as we would never have been able to link the recovered property to an owner. Your help was invaluable so thank you.”
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