‘Master jewel thief’ caught by Cambridgeshire police with half a million pounds of loot is jailed for 12-and-a-half years

A man who considered himself a ‘master’ jewellery thief who was found with more than half a million pounds of cash, coins, watches and gems at his home has been jailed for 12-and-a-half-years.

Peter O’Halloran, 49, was caught after leaving his DNA on a ladder he used to break into a property in Church Street, Guilden Morden, on March 4, 2022.

Cambridgeshire police raided his home in Suffolk in November last year, after linking him to a series of burglaries across Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Norfolk.

In a desk at his home, they found about £60,000 in cash, coins worth up to £80,000, watches and bags of gems.

In his bedroom was a book titled ‘Confessions of a Master Jewellery Thief’ and elsewhere in the house were books about antiques, fine metals, gems and jewellery.

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

O’Halloran stole the ladder that led to his demise from a nearby property and was captured on CCTV walking around the boundary of the Guilden Morden home, using it to peer through windows, before he broke in and took jewellery and watches.

Cambridgeshire police then identified O’Halloran in CCTV images from a burglary in Northamptonshire in January 2019, when heirlooms worth about £700,000 were stolen.

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

A further nine burglaries across five counties were taken into consideration. Four of these took place in Cambridgeshire - in Waresley, Newton and two in Brington - between January and November 2022.

Det Con Lisa Bacon, from the southern burglary team, 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.”