A popular salon boss who lost thousands after a prolific burglar's callous raids believes his sentence was "too lenient".
Francesco Group was targeted twice in a fortnight by Raymond Bould in autumn 2016. The 47-year-old drug addict also smashed his way into Uttoxeter's Asda store and swiped valuable DJ equipment.
Bould, of Stone Road, Uttoxeter then offered the music gear's owner £100 to lie to put him in the clear by lying to the cops.
A judge sentenced the burglar to four years behind bars at Stoke on Trent Crown Court earlier last month.
However, Francesco Group owner Paula Parkes believes justice would have been done with a tougher sentence.
She said: "I think the sentencing is too lenient. He's a repeat offender and will be out in a couple of years. Then he'll just do the same again. He's had a lot of issues and is well known for that around Uttoxeter.
"For me, personally, I wondered whether it was worth carrying on with the salon after what happened. We are only a small business and this is the kind of thing that could have left us bankrupt. Just the shutters alone cost me £4,000, and that is not including the costs I couldn't recoup.
"It was around £6,000 to £8,000 which I’ll never, ever get back. I want to make sure my salon is safe, including the people who work here. I've had to make an investment to trade in a safe environment.
"After it happened, I couldn't sleep and was worrying all the time – just thinking 'is he going to try to get in again tonight?'. I was worried about whether there would be repercussions for me if I had to go to court and identify him."
Bould swiped equipment including straighteners, curling tongs and brushes together worth more than £1,000 and caused serious damage to the Trinity Square salon inside and out.
The court heard he was feeding a drug habit including cannabis, amphetamine, LSD, heroin and crack cocaine.
But Ms Parkes does not see that as an excuse.
She said: "I've got no sympathy with the offender, regardless of his problems. We all have a choice in life and those choices are ours alone. We have to take the consequences of our actions.
"I've come from a hard background and had a lot of knocks myself, so excuses about upbringing just don’t wash with me.
"At the end of the day, at least you feel like justice has prevailed to a certain degree – and hopefully that gives hope to people who fear the authorities won’t pursue things enough. At least you feel like something’s been done.
"On the whole, though, it's taken a very long time to prosecute this man, when people were ringing me up identifying him as soon as it happened. It's taken 10 months to get a result.
"I think the most pleasing thing about the whole thing is the sense of community people showed. It gives you faith there are people out there who care. Millions of people have hard lies and you just have to get on with it."
The Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the matter.
