Lewis Muir, 22, and David Boyd, 22, carried out the burglaries over 10 days from October 1, to October 11, last year.
The pair appeared at Minshull Street Crown Court on March 13, 2026, for sentencing, and the court heard how they targeted homes with high-value vehicles parked outside.
Muir previously pleaded guilty to the offences of seven domestic burglaries and two attempted burglaries, and Boyd pleaded guilty to one offence of burglary and dangerous driving.
The court heard that the pair entered a home on Dumers Chase in Radcliffe, where a couple lived with their seven-week-old baby.
The victims were alerted to trespassers at around 2.30am on October 11, 2025, when the mother woke up to feed her child.
Outside, she could hear her car, a BMW 3 Series, being started. She called her partner, who heroically tried to open the door of the car as it was reversing off their driveway, but was unsuccessful.
The couple did call the police, and officers were able to respond quickly.
At 2.55am, Boyd, who was driving the car, entered into a police chase that lasted around four minutes.
During this time Boyd drove in a way that was “clearly dangerous” down a no-entry street, the court heard.
He drove at speeds of 90 miles per hour down a residential street and at 100 miles per hour through a red light before going off the road and crashing into a fence, causing damage to the vehicle.
Along with their car, a Gucci Bag worth £2,000 was taken, which had been given to the couple as a present at their baby shower and was used as a changing bag.
Inside it, they kept their seven-week-old child’s red book, used to record information about their birth and health, and this has still not been recovered.
The court heard Muir had carried out similar burglaries over 10 days with a resident on Westcott Grove, Royton, Oldham waking up at 2.30am on October 1, 2025.
When they went downstairs, they found their kitchen doors open and assumed their partner must have opened them, so they went back to sleep.
When they woke at 7.40am, their partner told them the lock appeared to be broken on the back door, and four bottles of wine were missing from their fridge.
On the same night, Muir entered a property on Charlbury Way in Royton, Oldham, and took a £10 note.
The court heard that a mother lived there with her two children, and one of them was up late studying for a law exam the next day.
At 4am, the mother got up to make some tea for her daughter and noticed the kitchen doors were open.
She described “screaming” to her children to ask if anyone had been in the house.
They realised £10 had been taken from her daughter’s bag in the living room, and her daughter was unable to take the exam the following day.
The victim said they were “scared because the thieves could have come upstairs and hurt me or my children.”
The court heard that, on October 2, a resident of Sheridan Way, Chadderton, woke up shortly before 3am to noises and went downstairs in her home.
She could see lights in her kitchen and shouted loudly, before calling the police, who arrived in minutes.
She had a 2023 series BMW, and there had been a string of thefts in the area of similar vehicles.
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The case was heard at Minshull Street Crown Court (Image: Anthony Moss)
The court heard the same evening Muir stole an Audi A4 S Line and a Nissan Qashqai from another property on Swinford Grove, Oldham, and both sets of keys were also missing.
On October 2, Muir entered a home on Hamilton Avenue, in Royton, at around 2.45am and stole a Louis Vuitton handbag.
On October 3, Muir stole a Black Mercedes EGE AMG and its keys from a home in Oldham.
The resident was alerted to the theft at 6.30am when she noticed the vehicle was no longer parked in the driveway.
After contacting Mercedes, she was told the tracker was no longer on her vehicle and may have been removed.
One victim awoke when he heard his gate making a noise from the inside of his property. When he went downstairs to investigate, he saw two men wearing balaclavas.
He shouted something, and they ran away. After they left, he could see that his back door handle had been damaged, and he stayed there all night, worried they would return.
In fact, many said the locks on their back doors were broken, and one victim recalled their house alarm displaying a ‘tampered’ message.
The court heard from the victims who said they would “have to change their locks” and “struggled to sleep.”
One said: “Both my partner and I are too scared to get out of bed during the night”, explaining that because of the incident, they have had to cough up £300 on new security measures.
They said: “My children should feel safe at home without worrying someone is going to break in at night.”
Another said: “It will take a long time for my family to recover.”
One victim, aged 65, said they keep their walking stick close to them to use for self-defence, they said: “I have had to get a new lock, which will set me back financially.”
The court heard the pair were on licence for previous convictions, including burglary, at the time of the offences.
Boyd had five previous convictions for 26 offences and was serving a 44-month sentence.
Defending Boyd, Miss Eleanor Brambell, read from a letter his mother had written to the court, which said: “he is not a man incapable of help”.
Sentencing Boyd, HHJ Lester-Ashworth said: “This was a deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road.”
Boyd was handed a sentence of 34 months in custody, but he has already served four months while waiting for this sentencing, so it was reduced to 26 months.
He will also be disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Muir was convicted of burglary offences on November 23, 2021, when he was just 18, and was serving a sentence of four years.
Muir’s defence, Mr Pierce Power, told HHJ Lester-Ashworth that Muir was “immature”, and said: “He’s only got himself to blame for this, but it’s a rather sad fact that since December 2021, save for a few weeks where he was out and about, he spent the majority of that in prison.
“And he will spend a good amount of time in the next few years in prison, so when he comes out, he will have spent a long period of his twenties in prison.”
Sentencing Muir, HHJ Lester-Ashworth said: “This was a spree of offending.
“There were children at home.
“One of the victims was 65 years of age.
“The text messages I have seen demonstrated a planned operation to steal and sell vehicles for financial gain.”
She mentioned screwdrivers were also found in the car.
Muir was given a custodial sentence of six years, and HHJ Lester-Ashworth said it gave her “no pleasure” handing him a sentence of that length at his age
She said: “You do not have to live that life; you can change it.
“Only you can make these changes.”
