Harrogate burglar on immigration tag burgled family's home as they slept - but was foiled by tracker device

But he was later caught red-handed thanks to a tracking device the victim had connected to his vehicle.

Michael Balog, 21, was on prison licence at the time of the burglary at the semi-detached home on Eleanor Road in Harrogate, in the early hours of August 31.

He broke in while the couple were asleep upstairs and stole a purse, wallet and the keys to the husband’s Land Rover Discovery, said prosecutor Neil Coxon.

He said that Balog was on an electronic tag at the time due to “matters concerned with immigration”.

The named victim, who had parked his 17-plate Land Rover outside, woke up the following morning to find that the front door of the house was ajar and his car keys and wallet had disappeared.

His wife’s purse or handbag, containing bank cards, had also gone, as had his Land Rover, worth “many thousands of pounds”.

“Fortunately, he had both the car and his wallet fitted with a tracker device and that was connected to an app on his mobile (phone), and, therefore, he was able to track the vehicle to the location where he and police were able to recover it,” added Mr Coxon.

“He even had his keys attached to the tracker device.”

The tracking app enabled police to find the car keys, which had been hidden behind a loose brick in a wall at Balog’s home.

Balog, originally from the Czech Republic, had removed the mortar from around the brick and slipped the car keys into the cavity “like a spy’s ‘dead letter drop’”, before “carefully” putting the brick back in place.

Police also found the Land Rover which had been parked at some remove from Balog’s house but the handbag containing bank cards was never recovered.

Balog was hauled in for questioning but initially denied all allegations.

He was charged with burglary and theft of the Land Rover and ultimately admitted both offences.

Balog, of Kennion Road, Harrogate, was charged with a third allegation of attempted burglary at a property on nearby Wetherby Road on the same night but denied this and the charge was allowed to lie on court file.

He appeared for sentence via video link today on Monday, October 24 after being recalled to prison to serve the remainder of a previous jail sentence.

Mr Coxon said Balog had five previous convictions for eight offences including burglary, vehicle theft, handling stolen goods and drug dealing.

In August 2019, he was sentenced to 16 months in a young offenders’ institution for burglary.

In December 2020, he was jailed for over two years for dealing crack cocaine.

He was released from jail in January this year when he was fitted with a tag to enable police to monitor his movements.

He was still subject to the tagging order and on prison licence when he targeted the family home on Eleanor Road.

Defence barrister Jeremy Barton said Balog had stolen to fund a drug habit and pay off drug debts.

He said that since his last prison sentence he had found work at a supermarket but ultimately lost his job and “turned to crime, as he had done in the past”, to pay off his debts.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, slammed Balog for “invading somebody’s house while (he) was asleep with his wife upstairs”.

“You took the keys and you took a vehicle that would have been worth many thousands of pounds,” added Mr Morris.

“It is just good fortune that the (victim) had put a tracking device on the keys (which) were secreted in a ‘dead-letter drop’.

“Were it not for the tracker on the key fob, those keys would not have been found. There was good police work in this case.”

Jailing Balog for 22 months, the judge told him: “You are yet again back before the courts (and) you only have yourself to blame.”

Balog will serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.