Darlington woman caught workman rifling through her underwear drawer

Ashley Blakey felt physically sick when she caught the workman going through her drawers on her in-house CCTV on May 5 2022.

The Thirteen Housing workman had come to her home to fix an alarm, but he was left alone for roughly three hours when Ashley had to travel to Newcastle for a job interview.

Read more: Man arrested in Darlington on suspicion of driving offences after short pursuit

While she was 35 miles away, Ashley received notifications from an app on her phone connected to her CCTV camera alerting her that motion had been detected in her bedroom.

CCTV of workman from Thirteen Housing entering a Darlington woman's bedroom, and started rifling through her underwear drawer, while he was meant to be downstairs fixing an alarm. Picture: Ashley Blakey (Image: Ashley Blakey)

It was at that moment that the 36-year-old saw the workman raking through her underwear drawer and allegedly stealing items.

Ashley runs the People's Assembly Darlington and she was horrified when she realised what this workman was doing while she was out.

Talking to The Northern Echo about the dreadful experience, Ashley said: “I’ve been in abusive relationships before, so I’ve got a CCTV camera in my bedroom that faces outside.

“I turned the camera round to face my bedroom door before I left, and I get notifications through on my phone if there’s motion detected.

“I don’t know what he was even doing upstairs, there was no need for him to be in my bedroom at all, and he was just raking through my drawers, and it actually made me feel sick.

Ashley Blakey, who runs People's Assembly Darlington, was horrified when she realised what the workman was doing in her bedroom while she was out. Picture: Aja Dodd, Newsquest (Image: Aja Dodd, Newsquest)

“What if my 17-year-old daughter had been there? I genuinely felt ill when I saw what he was doing.

“It’s not exactly what you expect from a professional, is it?

“Thirteen Housing didn’t even apologise. All I was given £200 to ‘clean the property.’”

Shortly after the incident, the workman was immediately dismissed by Thirteen and arrested by police.

Durham Police confirmed he was released with no further action as there was “no real prospect of conviction.”

In a statement the force said: "Police were called to reports of a burglary that reportedly took place at an address in Edgemoor Road, in Darlington, on May 5 last year.

"Officers launched an investigation and arrested a 36-year-old man in connection with the incident.

"After gathering all available evidence, a file was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, who concluded that there was no realistic prospect of conviction based upon the evidential test which is required before someone is charged with a criminal offence.

"As a result, the man was released with no further action."

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Thirteen's executive director of customer services, David Ripley, said: "The safety of our customers is our absolute priority. As soon as we became aware of the incident last year, we carried out a full investigation, and we moved quickly to deal with the individual who no longer works for us. Colleagues spoke with and visited the customer and apologised for what occurred. We also provided options to the customer if she wished to pursue them, as well as compensation for the unfortunate event.

“We have clear behavioural standards and values that all our staff must follow, and we greatly regret that the actions of a sole employee have caused distress and we would like to once again apologise to the customer. I can assure customers that references and pre-employment checks are carried out and where required DBS checks are undertaken in line with the duties of the role’s colleagues perform at Thirteen.

“We expect the highest of standards from our colleagues, and we’d like to reassure the customer that this incident was addressed swiftly."