"He managed to keep the defendant in his property."
A burglar has been jailed after a neighbour’s chilling discovery led to him being busted.
Harminder Singh burgled one of his own neighbours on Birmingham’s so-called ‘Benefits Street’.
He broke into the family of seven’s home while they were asleep on James Turner Street in Winson Green, which was made famous by a Channel 4 show in 2014.
Neither Singh nor the victims appeared on the programme.
The 44-year-old serial criminal stole a PlayStation 5 from the house in the early hours of May 14, 2024.
One of the male occupants woke up after hearing someone moving furniture in the living room.
Singh claimed he later heard children from the home crying over the loss and he “couldn’t live with the consequences”.
Nevertheless, he went on to swiftly sell the game console for a quick gain.
But Singh made a mistake by dropping a Nokia with its torch illuminated inside the house.
Within minutes of fleeing the property, Singh returned to retrieve it and told the family he had been robbed of it as well as two laptops.
Prosecutor Maninder Chaggar said: “About five minutes later the defendant attended the address and told the family he had been robbed of two laptops and a mobile phone.”
The family initially felt sorry for Singh and let him in.
When they realised he was the actual burglar, they locked him inside until the police arrived.
Ms Chaggar continued: “He walks straight into the front room and starts looking around at the floor where the phone had been found. [The occupant] realises this may well be the burglar.
“He instructed his son to lock the front door and the police are called. Within minutes, the police arrived.
“He managed to keep the defendant in his property.”
Singh claimed he saw a hooded culprit steal his belongings and “presumed” they were black.
He has 68 previous convictions for 168 offences, including 70 theft-type crimes, although this was his first house burglary.
Singh has also breached court orders 24 times.
Ragveer Chand, defending, said: “As a consequence of becoming a father for the first time this defendant is determined to put his past firmly behind him.
“Sometimes those life-changing events can be the catalyst by which people put their past behind them.
“The defendant’s instructions are that on hearing the children crying when he was outside the address he simply couldn’t live with the consequences of depriving them of the PS5.
“There maybe a degree of scepticism because the court knows it hasn’t been recovered.”
Judge Avik Mukherjee said Singh’s first burglary was a “significant change” and an “escalation” of his offending.
He said: “Your partner must have been pregnant in March, April and May which didn’t prevent you realising this was a life you need to leave behind for your newborn child.
“Nonetheless if that’s something that’s going to convince you that this is a road that needs to come to an end that bodes well for the future.”
Singh, who lived in a HMO on James Turner Street, admitted burglary and was jailed for 27 months.
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