University ‘ignored warnings’ over caretaker’s ‘one man crime-wave’
Former caretaker burgled 115 student rooms in 20 colleges during two year spree
Oxford University has been accused of ignoring warnings from concerned students regarding the conduct of a university-employed caretaker who went on to burgle over 100 student rooms, stealing tens of thousands of pounds to fund a cocaine habit. Students claim that the university went out of their way to keep them in the dark over the activities of the criminal caretaker, and in doing so could have hindered a Thames Valley Police investigation.
Ian Bartlett, a 42 year old former caretaker at the Wellington Square graduate accommodation block, was sentenced to five years imprisonment at Oxford Crown Court last month for a string of burglaries from Oxford colleges that spanned two years and left dozens of domestic and foreign students out of pocket.
In a case that has raised vital questions about the university’s vetting and security procedures, Bartlett • described as a “one man crime-wave” by the police officer in charge of tracking him down • exploited his position as a university employee with residency in student accommodation to gain access to student rooms in 20 different colleges and university departments.
An investigation by The Oxford Student has found that the university’s accommodation office ignored several warnings from student residents of Wellington Square over Bartlett’s suspicious behaviour.
Students have accused the university of then attempting to cover up their mistake after Bartlett went on the run from police by removing Thames Valley Police (TVP) ‘wanted’ posters from the accommodation block and refusing to explain to students the circumstances regarding Bartlett’s departure. The university has denied all charges of wrongdoing. Ian Bartlett joined the staff of Oxford University after reportedly being expelled from the RAF over an incident of theft.
He was appointed caretaker of the graduate accommodation block at 25 Wellington Square and given a room among the students, most of whom were from outside the UK. In March 2003, Bartlett, who told the court he was struggling with both a drugs and gambling problem and desperately needed money to fund his addictions, embarked on an audacious burgling spree under the nose of his employers.
However, despite question marks over his activities apparently being raised by the students whose rooms were under his care, Bartlett managed to avoid detection until the summer of 2005, when he carried out a particularly lucrative spate of robberies, committing 17 offences in just six weeks. After police investigated, Bartlett was arrested in mid August, only to abandon his job and go on the run.
In a letter dated 17th August to residents of the accommodation block where he had worked, seen by this newspaper, the university’s Accommodation Officer said simply that Mr Bartlett had “left the university’s employment”. It made no mention of the fact that a massive manhunt was underway to find Bartlett, and that TVP were appealing for witnesses to help with their investigation.
Speaking to The Oxford Student, a group of graduate students who resided with Bartlett in Wellington Square have claimed that they had concerns over the caretaker’s behaviour for some time but had been ignored by the Accommodation Office when they tried to communicate their suspicions. Despite the fact that Bartlett has not been charged with any thefts from Wellington Square, the students insist his conduct was worthy of investigation.
“Mr Bartlett was often seen patrolling the various floors of the three-storied accommodation, basically to check out who’s out and who’s in,” said one graduate who lived in Wellington Square and wishes to remain anonymous. “He would stop people and, in what I saw as a suspiciously over-friendly way, ask about their daily schedule… He seemed to be particularly interested in the new arrivals from abroad, who would have had substantial cash with them somewhere stacked in their rooms.
The same student says that another resident had been the victim of a burglary and had £130 stolen from his room. Realising that only the cleaner or Bartlett could have had access to the locked room, he called Karin Mullins at the University’s accommodation office, “only to hear back a ‘don’t create any panic’ policy. Bartlett’s odd behaviour therefore continued.
After Bartlett fled from his post in early August, TVP put up a number of ‘wanted’ posters at various colleges where he was believed to have committed offences. Some of the Wellington Square residents who saw these posters made photocopies of them and stuck them up inside the Wellington Square block. But they were shocked to discover that the posters were constantly being removed, apparently by university employees.
“I broke the news [of Bartlett going on the run] to the residents,” said a second graduate resident who does not wish to reveal their name. “I came across a ‘Wanted’ poster and brought it to the house. We then photocopied it and pasted on each of the entry doors that evening. “By the next morning, the posters were gone.
We again put up the posters early in the evening and by this time we also started circulating the news verbally to any resident we met and asked them to spread the word. We contacted the accommodation office, but they said it was confidential and that we were not supposed to know anything.
The residents are furious that the university seemed to be trying to block their attempts to circulate information about Bartlett’s criminal activities, even though some of them could have provided crucial intelligence for the police on their former caretaker’s activities. They believe some of the burglaries carried out by Bartlett over the summer could have been avoided if the university had acted sooner.
“Even after he became a fugitive from justice, the Accommodation Office left no stones unturned in retarding all attempts by the residents to circulate information on our former caretaker,” said one graduate. “The university took down all the copies of the police ‘wanted’ poster.
The result was that the 100 residents of Wellington Square, many of whom believed themselves to be victims of Mr Bartlett, could not pass any vital information to the police on sighting him, which could have led to his arrest.” It took police a further six weeks to track Bartlett down, by which time he had committed another 28 burglaries.
He was charged with twelve burglaries over the summer, including stealing over £300 in cash from a room in Queens College on 7th August and the theft of 7,000 Euros from a room in St Hilda’s on the following day. Although he initially pleaded not guilty, Bartlett eventually admitted responsibility for the offences and then asked for over 100 similar offences to be taken into account when sentenced.
Nicholas Syfret, Bartlett’s barrister, told the court that his client always left laptops and computers behind so as not to cause too much stress for his victims. “He knew the effect of his offending and the stress it would cause... He accepts during this period he was a real menace to the university,” Mr Syfret said. Passing sentence, Judge Julian Hall told Bartlett: “These were something more than sneaky thefts. Your activities were on a grand scale.
I have no idea if you will conquer the drug habit but I want to make sure you are off the streets for a very long time.” The university has denied that it turned a blind eye to Bartlett’s activities but refused to comment on communication between residents of Wellington Square and the Accommodation Office over Bartlett carrying out burglaries.
“Bartlett has not been charged with carrying out burglaries in Wellington Square, and he has only been convicted of burglaries of university colleges,” said a spokesperson. The spokesperson said that she was not aware of where official procedures for dealing with such situations were recorded.
However, she claimed that was common practice for any allegations made against university employees to be taken “very seriously” and passed on to the employee’s line manager and the University Marshall, who would then decide whether to investigate internally or pass the matter on to police. She could not however say whether these internal guidelines were followed over the Bartlett affair, insisting that the university did not comment on individual investigations.
A Freedom of Information request filed by The Oxford Student revealed that there were three recorded thefts and burglaries at the accommodation block in 2005, along with a number of incidences of petty theft. The spokesperson also insisted the university had fully cooperated with the TVP investigation, but did not deny that the ‘wanted’ posters in Wellington Square had been removed.
“Posters were distributed by TVP to relevant Colleges; there was no need to display them in other locations,” she said. The six weeks following Bartlett’s capture heralded a twothirds fall in Oxford’s burglary rate, in a year when crime detection rates for TVP have been described as ‘woefully low’ in the local press.
Detective Constable Jeff Capstick, the officer investigating for Thames Valley Police, said, “Bartlett was clearly a one-man crime wave and a continuous criminal threat to the University by which he was employed. He caused a lot of suffering to the victims of these crimes, who in the main were foreign students, but also full-time students of the university colleges.
“He admitted to targeting 18 different university colleges throughout a 27-month period, but is adamant that he never stole from the students with whom he was in a position of trust with. This result is obviously a good one for officers who worked on the case and a lot of hard work has gone into investigating this crime series, with the help of Oxford University.
12th Jan 2005