Thief tells police ‘you’re lucky I’m not grooming girls’ after London crime spree
A prolific thief who went on a £19,000 spree in London’s financial district told police they were “lucky I didn’t groom girls” after his arrest, a court heard.
Neville Stanbury, 58, defied a decade-long ban on entry to the area by targeting a number of offices and businesses in the Square Mile between December 2025 and March this year.
During questioning, Stanbury confessed to the break-ins, telling officers they were “lucky he didn’t do worse.” He admitted that he “probably did that” when confronted with thefts he could not remember, and explained that his crimes were to finance his heroin addiction.
At Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Christopher Hehir sentenced Stanbury to three years and four months in prison and issued a dire warning that he risked dying behind bars if he failed to overcome his drug addiction.
“After all, the only person who can really help you is you,” he told her.
“No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to take heroin or other drugs; no one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to steal.
“You have a choice; continue to spend most of your life in prison and probably die in prison, or step back, look in the mirror and decide to change your path.”
The judge said Stanbury was “conflicting” with those trying to help him, and that past efforts to avoid prison in the name of rehabilitation had “not entirely worked”, adding: “Your tendency is to blame others for your misfortunes, rather than asking yourself whether you are guilty or not.”
The court heard Stanbury had 50 convictions, dating back more than 30 years, covering 140 offenses, the “vast majority” of which were non-residential burglaries.
In 2022, Stanbury was given a criminal behavior order banning him from the City of London until the end of 2031 after he went on a £40,000 criminal damage and theft spree.
He was caught entering buildings through the back door to bypass security before leaving with his valuables.
In 2016, Stanbury was jailed for four-and-a-half years after using the same method to steal £32,000 worth of items in a five-month burglary campaign in London’s legal district.
Prosecutor Matthew Jolliffe said that in his latest offences, Stanbury was caught on CCTV repeatedly stealing and the crimes were linked thanks to the green hat he wore during each break-in.
On December 28, he broke into recruitment agency GH Engage, gym Roar Fitness and insurance firm Zego at an office block in Eastcheap, stealing laptops and phones worth more than £6,000.
The court heard that on January 23 he broke down the front doors to gain access to lawyers’ rooms at 3 Hare Court in the Inner Temple.
“Once inside, he remained on the premises for seven minutes before leaving,” Mr. Jolliffe said.
“He is known to these facilities because he was previously banned after entering the facility for theft purposes.”
On March 18, Stanbury entered the offices of IT firm Wavenet in the Minories and was captured on CCTV leaving with a backpack full of electronics.
He raided the offices of finance firm VFX and insurers City and Commercial, both in Duke’s Place, and seized laptops worth thousands of pounds.
And on April 4 he was caught on CCTV stealing more than £6,000 worth of electronics, which he loaded into a bag at Hubflow’s offices on Lombard Street.
After his arrest four days later, Stanbury asked “so what?” he replied. The court heard the hearing when he was faced with breaching a criminal conduct order.
The prosecutor added that he insisted he was “not a drug addict” but took heroin to “calm down”.
Stanbury, of Hither Green in Lewisham, south-east London, pleaded guilty to seven counts of burglary, one count of attempted burglary and breaching a criminal behavior order.
