A serial burglar who was found hiding in the bathroom of a Jesmond student flat has been jailed.

Sam Davies, 34, was arrested at his Arthur’s Hill home on July 31 after officers carried out a warrant as part of an investigation into a series of break-ins across the area. He was charged the same day and has since been sentenced to one year and eight months behind bars.

CCTV footage from a Jesmond student house captured Sam Davies entering the living room last November while two of the six occupants were asleep and the others were out.

The video shows Davies wandering around the room before picking up a large bottle and slipping it into his jacket pocket.

The latest incident highlights a broader issue with student HMOs in the Jesmond area. While Davies is a repeat offender, burglaries targeting student accommodation are not a new problem in the region. In many cases introducers enter properties in Jesmond htrough unlocked doors, which are frequently cited as a common vulnerability in student property.

Student HMOs remain lucrative targets for burglars, with research by Nottingham Trent University researchers suggesting “students have been, and continue to be, generally more vulnerable
to victimisation by property and personal crime.”

The most recent example involves Thomas Reay, 44, accused of carrying out a series of high-value burglaries across Jesmond, concentrating on streets with a high student population, including Brandling Place, Tankerville Terrace, Osborne Road, and Larkspur Terrace. Reay has pleaded not guilty to five counts of burglary and one count of attempted burglary in a recent court hearing.

Northumbria Police data suggests an increase in burglaries in Jesmond since June 2025. Jesmond and Heaton observe the second-highest burglary incident rate in the Newcastle area, only behind Wallsend.

Leo Clevely, 20, a student resident, said: “It’s very surprising given the area is more well known for being a safer place to live in Newcastle.”

Clevely added he believes “there is an attraction to students due to them almost guaranteed to have laptops, phones and things like that, along with the house maybe being unlocked more often due to multiple people leaving the house at different times.”