Ballsy Student Burglar Behind Bars

A burglar notorious for targeting Cambridge students was jailed this week for three and a half years.

Graham Woollett, 36, was arrested and charged earlier this month for stealing cash, phones and a laptop from Newnham and Clare colleges.

Woollett confessed to two charges of burglary, which occurred a mere few days after he was released from prison for previous thefts at college accommodation. He even asked the court to consider three more of his offences during sentencing.

He was given the longest ASBO in Cambridge’s history last year and his most recent offences at Newnham and Clare were a blatant breach of this. John’s, Catz and St Edmund’s were also targeted at this point.

Nicked: Cambridge college burglar, Graham Woollett

Judge Jonathan Haworth warned Woollett to “Come to Cambridge at your peril” and was sympathetic to students whose important work was robbed in the raids.

The incidents raise questions about the lack of sufficient security in college accommodation and the absent-mindedness of overworked students, which provide a ripe environment for opportunists like Woollett.

Judge Haworth explained Woollett’s technique: “You walk up the staircase and find a room that is not locked and you simply steal electrical goods that are there.”

Will Cole, a second-year Muso from Clare, was left bemused on a sunny afternoon in exam term when his iPod was pilfered from his open ground floor window. He told The Tab: “I popped out of my room to go the loo, and on my return found the iPod gone, having been disconnected from my hifi.

“In leaving the window open and my valuables within sight I was entirely at fault security-wise.”

Vendantha Kumar, a third-year Philosopher also from Clare and living in the Colony, attempted to chase a burglar who was stealing his friend’s Macbook.

“I followed him and called the police whilst keeping a small distance, but when the police arrived they all went to the same road and he escaped.”

It isn’t clear whether these incidents were the work of Woollett, but Kumar is pleased that the police went all out to catch the crook who’d made so many students’ lives miserable, telling The Tab: “It’s great they caught one of them!”