Burglar: 'I robbed more than 2,600 London homes'

Norman Sinclair, 46, of no fixed address, became one of Scotland Yard's most wanted criminals after stealing millions of pounds worth of cash and jewellery.

He pleaded guilty to 13 burglaries at Harrow Crown Court in June and decided to "clear his books" by admitting to all his previous offences.

Sinclair, who had a £2,500-a-day crack habit, claimed to have donated £10,000 from the proceeds of his crimes to charities and pawned jewellery so his victims could recover it.

On one occasion, he walked around London with £100,000 stuffed into his pockets.

A source claimed that he spent almost all his money on drugs and in crack dens, where he would buy everyone he met "rounds" of crack.

Sinclair, originally from Jamaica, had moments of guilt and donated some of the cash to churches and hospitals.

Police confirmed they had traced one £2,000 donation to a health clinic.

Detective Chief Inspector Pete Edwards, who led the hunt for Sinclair, said he was an "extremely bright and skilled burglar", who only left fragments of evidence at the scene of a raid on a handful of occasions.

A police spokesman said: "He had an extraordinary mindmap of London, based entirely on areas he had burgled and places he considered to be lucrative."

He focused most heavily on properties near Tube routes in Barnet, Brent and Harrow, but also struck in west and south London.

He would try to blend into the areas by wearing suits to raid expensive detached houses and more casual clothes to burgle terraced streets.

Sinclair was eventually identified by grainy CCTV images from pawn shops which were aired on BBC's Crimewatch.

Alarmed, he tried to flee the country using a false passport to which he had stuck a photograph of himself with Superglue.

He was eventually arrested in March in Dover by the French port authorities as he tried to drive onto a ferry.

He is due to be sentenced on October 5. The maximum sentence he can receive is seven years.