Peter O’Halloran from Debenham jailed for 12 years

About £60,000 in cash, coins worth up to £80,000, watches and bags of gems - believed to add up to £500,000 in total - were found by police during a raid on Peter O'Halloran's home in Debenham, Suffolk, in November last year.

Police also found a book titled ‘Confessions of a Master Jewellery Thief’ as well as books about antiques, fine metals, jewellery and gems.

Items recovered from Peter O’Halloran's home (Image: Cambridgeshire Police)

An ultrasonic cleaning machine was found in his garage and inside his vehicle were false number plates, mobile phones, cash and changes of clothes.

The 49-year-old was linked with a robbery at a home in Church Street in Guilden Morden in March 2022 after his DNA was found on a ladder he used to break in. 

He stole the ladder from a nearby property and was captured on CCTV walking around the boundary of the home, using it to peer through windows. He then broke in and took jewellery and watches.

Peter O’Halloran caught going up a ladder on CCTV (Image: Cambridgeshire Police)

Officers from Cambridgeshire then went on to identify O’Halloran in CCTV images from a burglary in Northamptonshire in January 2019 where heirlooms worth around £700,000 were stolen.

At Cambridge Crown Court on Friday, November 17, O’Halloran, of Gardeners Road, Debenham,  was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to the Guilden Morden burglary as well as the burglary in Northamptonshire and a third in Norfolk.

Detective Constable Lisa Bacon, from the southern burglary team at Cambridgeshire Police, said: “O’Halloran is a calculated, professional, high-value burglar with a string of convictions against his name.

“He considers himself a ‘master’ thief, carefully surveying the homes he is going to target and then going to great lengths to ensure the stolen items are not traced back to him.

“I hope this sentence provides some closure to all of the victims affected by his criminality.”