A career criminal has been locked up after stealing jewellery and an air humidifier from a south Essex home.
Denver Clift, 40, of King George’s Close, Rayleigh, was sentenced last week for a single count of dwelling burglary with theft.
A second burglary charge was allowed to lie on file under a plea bargain agreed by the prosecution.
Clift pleaded guilty to breaking into a property in Prince Avenue, Westcliff, on April 29.
He made off with a humidifier and jewellery of unknown value.
A second charge – not pursued under the plea deal – had alleged that on June 3 he targeted another property, this time on Canvey Island.
Clift was said to have broken into a home on Rainbow Road and stolen a leather bag, a DKNY purse, £200 in cash, a chequebook and golf clubs.
He was sentenced on Thursday (August 6) by Recorder John Brooke-Smith, sitting at Colchester Magistrates’ Court, acting as a satellite courtroom for Basildon Crown Court.
He jailed Clift for 18 months.
This was far from Clift’s first appearance in the Echo and our sister paper in Thurrock.
In 2006, we reported how Clift – then 20 years old, living in Tilbury and already subject to an ASBO – had stolen a Ford Fiesta.
That stolen car was then driven by another woman who, under the influence of drugs, smashed it into another car in a head-on collision.
The crash killed the driver’s own teenage children, plus two under-tens in the other car.
Clift received 15 months in a young offenders’ institution for stealing the car, plus two months for contempt of court after refusing to be sworn as a witness in the death driver’s trial.
In 2011, Clift was back in the news after he held up a cashier in a Thurrock convenience store with a kitchen knife.
He was quickly recognised by Essex Police and arrested hours later at Basildon Hospital, where his girlfriend was in labour.
He was taken into custody, missed the birth of his daughter and was ultimately sentenced to three years in prison.
In 2014, he was the subject of an Essex Police wanted appeal, which said he was being recalled to prison for a breach of his licence conditions.
In 2015, he was charged with robbing a man of £10 at knifepoint on a train.
In 2018, he was the subject of another wanted appeal, this time for questioning over a serious assault and a burglary.
In 2021, he was charged with burglaries of one home and three Co-Op stores across Thurrock, plus dangerous driving and other offences.
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