Carlisle burglar jailed eight years after jewellery theft

Gavin Carabini jumped between jurisdictions to evade justice, the judge said

A burglar who took jewellery worth £10,000 from an elderly woman's home has been jailed - almost eight years after committing the crime.

The door of the 86-year-old victim's property was forced open while she was out one afternoon in October 2011.

Carlisle Crown Court heard Gavin Carabini left a fingerprint in the study of the home in Stanwix, Carlisle.

After being arrested in Ireland, he admitted burglary and was jailed for three years.

At the time of the offence, Carabini had been living in Carlisle under a false name.

His fingerprint was found on a barometer which had belonged to the victim's late husband.

He was already on the run after taking part in a 100,000-Euro armed robbery of a Dublin jeweller in 2008 and then fleeing a Welsh court while being sentenced for drug offences in May 2011.

'Deliberately attacked'

Following an appeal over the robbery on the BBC's Crimewatch television programme, Irish national Carabini surrendered in Ireland and served a jail sentence.

Upon his release, he was arrested and extradited to England.

Carabini, of Our Lady's Road in Maryland, Dublin, was said to have been "running wild" in the grip of a serious Class A drug habit at the time of the offences.

Judge James Adkin said Carabini had "deliberately attacked" the pensioner's home and "stripped it of its valuable jewellery".

The court heard the 35-year-old had penned a "heartfelt" apology letter to his burglary victim, and had "set about his own rehabilitation".