THREE men have been charged as part of a wide investigation into a series of burglaries in Rochford, Basildon and Kent.
Three men were arrested in Basildon on Wednesday as part of that investigation after a police pursuit took place when a number of people were reported to be acting suspiciously in the Castle Point area.
When the men were taken into custody, detectives from Castle Point and Rochford CID were able to link them to a number of offences and worked over a 24-hour period with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to secure a number of charges.
John Lowe, 25, of no fixed abode has been charged with seven counts of burglary, aggravated vehicle taking, fail to stop, driving without insurance, fraudulently using a registration document and going equipped for burglary.
Joseph Gray, 32, of Elgar Gardens, Tilbury, and Jim Lowe, 21, of John F Kennedy Court, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, have been charged with aggravated vehicle taking and going equipped for burglary.
They appeared at Southend Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Friday 7 March. John Lowe was further remanded in custody. Gray and Jim Lowe were released on court bail ahead of a future court hearing. None of the three men entered any pleas.
Detective Inspector Nick Brunton, of Castle Point and Rochford CID, said: “Burglary causes a significant amount of hurt to victims, well beyond the financial or material losses they may suffer. This is why we’ve made these incidents a priority.
“Quite often, our investigations show that where there is a series of burglaries, this does not mean there are significant numbers of burglars in action, but rather we have an individual or a small number of individuals committing a number of burglaries – and that’s why it’s so important for us to carefully examine each incident and fully understand the possibility of common links between them.
“This means we’re able to build the strongest possible cases to put to our CPS partners.”
