A SERIAL burglar who stole thousands worth of pounds of property and targeted five Oxford University colleges has been jailed.

Nathan Dorsett, of Kingsbridge Road, Bartley Green, Birmingham, was jailed for two years and nine months for a string of break-ins in Oxford.

The 30-year-old admitted four counts of burglary, one count of theft and one count of going equipped for burglary, and asked for five further burglaries to be taken into consideration.

Prosecutor Jonathan Stone told at Oxford Crown Court that Dorsett first broke into St John’s College on July 26 and stole a wallet, a handbag and an iPhone.

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The barrister said St Catherine’s College was targeted on the same day, when crackers and chocolate were taken from the dining room.

Later that day Dorsett entered Balliol College through an open window and stole a University of Washington graduation ring, an HTC mobile phone, two digital cameras and about £900 in cash.

Mr Stone told Recorder Tom Payne the defendant was spotted stealing food from St Catherine’s College on July 31.

The prosecutor said on August 25 Dorsett broke in to St Antony’s College and took a digital camera, a Kindle, two mobile phones, a hard drive, an iPod and a laptop – together worth about £2,500. Mr Stone added that on October 18 the burglar was arrested near Mansfield College after a porter found his bag, containing bolt cutters, a crowbar and an iPad he had used to search for maps of the colleges.

Graham Bennett, defending, said his client had become addicted to gambling and was also involved in “drug culture” in Birmingham.

Recorder Payne told Dorsett there had been a “very significant degree of planning” in the burglaries and he had also been subject to a suspended sentence at the time.

He sentenced him to two years and four months for the burglaries and activated the 23-week suspended sentence, to run consecutively.

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