Police hunt ‘highly professional soldier’ after series of violent armed raids in homes across southern England

Burglar thought to have background in armed forces tied up victims and threatened them with sawn-off shotgun in raids worth £7m

A soldier armed with a sawn-off shotgun is believed to have carried out a £7 million series of “highly professional” burglaries on wealthy family homes across southern England.

Detectives said meticulous research and use of violence suggested the thief, who raids homes alone and ties up his victims with cable, is currently or has previously served in the military.

The burglar is thought to stake out isolated, high-value properties for several weeks to develop an intimate understanding of the comings and goings of their wealthy occupants and learn the locations of safes and valuables inside.

The “well-spoken, intelligent” thief is also believed to have entered some of the properties prior to the raids in order to better understand the layout of the rooms.

During some of the raids, all carried out in the Home Counties, the balaclava-wearing burglar also threatened and punched some of the terrified victims, leaving then bloodied and bruised.

In one burglary, he was so confident that the alarm could not be raised that he spent more than an hour with the occupants until he had gathered all the items he wished to steal.

Detective Inspector Dee Fielding, from Surrey Police, said the use of cable ties, the level of planning, and his confidence in carrying out such crime alone suggested a background in the forces.

She said: “Each of these burglaries have been extremely distressing for the victims involved.

“We do not believe this to be the work of an opportunist burglar, but someone who has specialist knowledge and skills – possibly ex-forces or from a similar background due to the way he has behaved and the circumstances of each incident.

“The burglaries all appear to be the work of someone who knows exactly what they are doing and who is incredibly decisive in their actions.

“On each occasion unnecessary levels of violence has been used in addition to a firearm, which he used to threaten the victims, who have then been tied up.”

Susan Morris was tied up and repeatedly punched by the burglar (PA)

The burglar carried out at least seven raids in a three-year period between November 2014 and October 2017, stealing more than £1 million of high-value items such as jewellery each time. Police believe he may have carried out further burglaries at other properties when residents were not at home.

Ms Fielding said: “He has worked quickly and appears to have knowledge of who is home at the time of each attack, the location of safes and the layout of the home.

“This leads us to believe he has planned the attacks in advance with a great level of detail and prior knowledge.

“More than £1 million worth of valuable items, including irreplaceable heirlooms, have been taken on each occasion.”

DNA evidence had been found at the scene of one of the raids but has not been linked to any previous offenders.

Ms Fielding said the burglaries occurred about once every six months, possibly as the offender needed more money.

Two of the raids were Kingswood, Surrey, with the others in Maidenhead, Berkshire, Chichester in West Sussex, Sevenoaks and Maidstone in Kent, and Virginia Water, Surrey.

One of his victims told how she feared she would die as the burglar pointed a firearm at her and punched her after tying her up in her home.

Susan Morris, 61, whose home in Kingswood was raided in October 2017, said: “It is still very vivid though in my mind.

“He came towards me and I realised he had a sawn-off shotgun and he grabbed hold of me. He was holding me the whole time of the burglary and never let go of me.

“I have actually got bruises all over my body where he had hold of me.

“All I want to do is get him out of the house as quickly as possible, give him what he wants and get him out.

“I gave him some more jewellery and he then wanted more jewellery, and this is when he really got angry and started to hit me.

“He hit me very hard on my face. Not enough to knock me out – he knew exactly how hard to hit me. He hit me three times on my face. It was very painful, I couldn’t believe the blows kept coming.”

Some of the valuable items stolen during the raids (PA)

She added: “One point when he was hitting me with the gun pointing at me, at that moment I did actually think, ‘This is it, it’s all over’.”

Mrs Morris suffered a broken jaw, lost a tooth and suffered facial bruising in the assault. The burglar stole a brooch belonging to her mother, she died when she was 17, and three rings owned by her husband’s mother, who died last year.

Detectives have found CCTV footage which has shown the thief staking out properties for days and weeks prior to carrying out the raids.

Surrey Police have released a description of the raider as white, of stocky or muscular build, 6ft tall, with a southern English accent.

Contains reporting by agencies