Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry newsletter
17th April 2024 Issue no. 701
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Smartwater nabs career crook
A career criminal who has never had a job and lived off the proceeds of his crimes for decades has been sentenced to seven months in prison for handling stolen goods.
Aldo Jones, 43, who has amassed 36 previous criminal convictions, was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court after pleading guilty to a charge of handling stolen goods. Jones was arrested in possession of two gold rings that were marked with a forensic liquid called SmartWater. He was spotted trying to pawn the rings at a jewellery shop and was reported to the police by a member of the public.
Before the two rings could be sent to SmartWater's laboratories for analysis a local resident contacted Stanmore Park Safer Neighbourhoods team and reported that two rings had gone missing from her house. She confirmed that both rings had been marked with SmartWater, having had all of her property marked during a visit from the Safer Neighbourhoods team a few weeks prior.
Officers investigating Aldo Jones confirmed that traces of SmartWater, which fluoresces under ultraviolet light, were present on both rings found in his possession. The rings have subsequently been returned to their 78 year old owner. She said that she doesn't always lock her door when she is at home and hadn't realised she had been burgled.
PCSO Amy Furmenger of Stanmore Park Safer Neighbourhoods team said: "The owner of the rings was absolutely delighted to be reunited with her property. She was full of praise for police so much so that she stood up and thanked us personally at a recent community meeting."
In February 2010 Harrow Council announced plans to offer SmartWater property marking to all 85,000 houses in flats across the London borough.
SmartWater Technology Ltd
Tel: 0870 242 8899
1st December 2010