Ricky Woolaston , 35 , dressed in uniform bearing the University of Birmingham logo to break into students ' houses and steal laptops . A thief who tricked his way into students ' homes to steal their belongings was caught when he left his old police charge sheet behind which had his name written on it . Ricky Woolaston , 35 , posed as a university maintenance engineer to gain access to students ' properties before pinching laptops and mobile phones to feed his drug habit . But a court heard he was easily tracked down by police after he left behind his bag at the scene of one of the crimes . Officers searched the rucksack and found it contained a police charge sheet from a previous offence bearing his name and address . The prolific thief was arrested last Friday , and has now been sentenced to four years in prison at Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to five burglaries . The court heard unemployed Woolaston would walk around the University of Birmingham campus wearing clothes bearing the red-brick university 's logo . But he was caught out when he broke into the Biosciences Department on January 29 where he forced open two secure metal cupboards . Nothing was stolen but Woolaston , from Erdington , Birmingham , left behind the bag containing the charge sheet . Police were then able to pin four other burglaries on him with the help of students who positively identified him . After the case , Detective Constable Jon Green , from West Midlands Police , said : 'Woolaston targeted students at Birmingham University in order to feed his drug habit . However , Woolaston was caught after breaking into the University 's bio-sciences lab and leaving behind a bag containing a previous police charge sheet , with his name and address written on it . 'He wore a University of Birmingham top and pretended to be a maintenance engineer in order to enter the student flats and steal electrical goods . 'Unfortunately for him , Woolaston managed to leave vital evidence behind at one of the break-ins , and we are grateful to vigilant students who were able to identify him for further burglaries . 'Woolaston was charged with a total of five offences , and asked for a further five burglaries to be taken into consideration . We are happy with his sentence . '
Ricky Woolaston , 35 , posed as engineer to break into students ' homes . Stole laptops and phones in order to feed his drug habit , court told . Was caught after leaving behind charge sheet with name and address on .