ONE of Basingstoke's most prolific criminals has been jailed for four years after committing nearly 70 burglaries.

Father-of-two Richard Denham, a heroin addict who stole to fund his £150-a-day habit, targeted homes right across the town during his 18-month burglary spree.

The bill for the items he stole and damaged topped £72,000 -and his crimes included swiping Christmas presents from family homes last year.

Unemployed Denham, 25, brazenly smashed his way into the houses of his victims in broad daylight by throwing bricks through glass windows and doors. Once in, he stole jewellery, cash, cameras and computer games, which he sold on for drugs money. Very few items have been recovered, as he has refused to tell detectives who he sold them to.

Speaking after Denham - from St Peter's Road, South Ham, Basingstoke - was jailed, Detective Constable Martyn Lillywhite, of the Basingstoke police burglary unit, said: "He was responsible for a large proportion of burglaries in the town, and has caused enormous problems for the people of Basingstoke.

"The effect of arresting him, and executing search warrants on his associates this summer, was that the burglary rate fell dramatically. It went so quiet that we were dealing with just a trickle of offences - one or two each week, in comparison with 10 or so before."

While the police are pleased that Den-ham is now behind bars, officers and Denham's victims have voiced concerns that he was allowed to remain free for so long despite reoffending time and time again.

Denham, who has a criminal record dating back to the age of 12, committed 25 of the offences in his recent crime spree after he was handed a drug treatment order by a judge instead of a jail term the last time he was sentenced for burglary.

He received the 12-month Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO) at Winchester Crown Court on November 28, 2003, after pleading guilty to three burglaries and asking for two more to be taken into account.

He retained his liberty even when he disregarded the voluntary order over a period of several months - and this has angered the police and his victims.

Detectives from the Basingstoke police burglary team have written to the Home Secretary, cataloguing the chain of events which, as they see them, meant Denham got away with ignoring the DTTO for too long.

Less than three weeks after he was put on it, Denham carried out a burglary in South Ham and went on to continue his crime spree with a string of raids on homes in Popley over Christmas.

Denham repeatedly failed to turn up for the counselling appointments he was meant to attend as part of the DTTO, admitted that he was still on heroin, and complained that he was not being supported in completing the order.

His defence counsel Adrienne Knight read a statement to the court in which Denham commented: "I was required to attend counselling sessions with other drug users, but as soon as the sessions were over, the users would go out and deal drugs, so I didn't want to go."

Denham was referred back to Winchester Crown Court for having failed to attend numerous appointments.

When he appeared before Judge Patrick Hooton in June he revoked the DTTO - but still deferred sentencing Denham to give him a further opportunity to mend his ways, telling him: "Get a job, get off drugs and stay out of trouble."

However, the prolific burglar was caught by police in August after carrying out yet more raids - and only then was he remanded in custody by the courts.

Denham - who appeared for sentencing last Friday - admitted burgling a house in Oakridge on August 15, breaking into houses in Winklebury on August 23 and August 26, and two counts of obtaining property by deception.

He asked for 62 further off-ences, including 56 house burg-laries, to be taken into consideration. A dozen of these were committed after he was given the deferred sentence in June.

He was also resentenced for the three burglaries for which he had previously been given the DTTO and was punished for breaching that same order.

Speaking after the hearing, Det Con Lillywhite said the Denham case has highlighted concerns among officers that DTTOs do not work as they should.

He told The Gazette: "Of all the offenders who have been sentenced at court and given DTTOs since the burglary unit was launched in May 2002, I estimate that 75 per cent of them have breached their orders or re-offended. These are voluntary orders, and if offenders don't wish to do them, they don't."

Superintendent Paul Nether-ton, head of Basingstoke police, said his officers had done all they could to stop Denham's offending, and have written to the Home Secretary expressing concerns about the DTTO.

He said: "I fully support schemes which are aimed at treating drug users who are prolific offenders, but the bottom line is that if drug treatment orders are breached, criminals must expect significant sentences - there can be no second chances."

The Gazette asked Richard Pearce, director for the National Probation Service in Hampshire, which was responsible for enforcing Denham's DTTO, to explain how this case was handled.

He said: "We understand that concerns have been raised with the Home Office about the way a DTTO has been administered. We have been asked to provide information to the Home Office and are doing so, so it is too early to respond to The Gazette's inquiry at this stage."

One of Denham's burglary victims, a pensioner who lost treasured possessions, including her engagement ring, slammed the justice system for allowing Denham to stay out of jail in June - meaning he was able to burgle her home on August 23.

"The law is too lenient," said the 60-year-old, from Laburnum Way, Winklebury, who asked not to be named because she has been left so frightened by the burglary.

She added: "Why was he not jailed? How many more chances did he need?"

At the sentencing hearing, Denham told the judge: "I'm not proud of any of the offences. I'm very sorry, and feel deeply for the victims."

Jailing him, Judge Hooton told him: "I cannot keep moulding the system around you, so that it suits what you want. I gave you a DTTO and deferred sentencing you after you breached it - I cannot be expected to do anything else. You've completely blown it and you have no sympathy from me."