'Quick-thinking' burglary victim helps police catch 'callous' Southend criminal
Damian Mills, 32, has been sentenced to prison after robbing a family from Leigh at knifepoint
Thanks to the quick-thinking victims of an aggravated burglary, a man has been jailed for almost seven years.
Damian Mills, of no fixed abode, Southend, was jailed for six years and nine months after he was sentenced at Basildon Crown Court on Friday 9th June after he pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary at an earlier hearing.
The 32-year-old forced his way into a property in Leigh shortly before midnight on Thursday 26th January when he was armed with a kitchen knife and a Stanley knife and demanded money from the victim and his family.
Whilst Mills searched the house, he was unaware that one of the occupants in bed upstairs, had called 999.
When police arrived just twenty minutes later, Mills was arrested in the garden of the property. No money had been taken, although Mills was found to be in possession of the victims mobile phone and had a hammer concealed in his clothing.
The officer in charge of the investigation, PC Jodie Allen, said “I want to praise the family for their quick actions that night in calling police. Mills was arrested as a direct result of that call. It must have been a terrifying ordeal for them with Mills threatening them and all the while armed with two knives. Fortunately, no one was injured that night and Damien Mills is now in prison, jailed for his callous actions that night.”
The court ordered that the weapons be destroyed.