A burglar who shares his name with The Godfather film mafia don has been jailed after being spotted inside a house by an alert window cleaner.
Vito Corlione Smith, 30, was caught after he was chased and bitten by a police dog called Rodney as he tried to flee from the house on Longdell Hill in Costessey.
The dog and its handlers had been called to the area after a window cleaner became suspicious when he saw two people inside a property.
Smith - whose first and middle names echo Vito Corleone, the character played by Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro in The Godfather series - admitted carrying out the burglary, which occurred on November 19 last year, at a hearing at Norwich Crown Court last month.
He also admitted to breaching a restraining order, relating to a former partner, on February 26 this year.
Appearing before the court to be sentenced on Tuesday (June 14) Smith, who has 17 previous convictions for 31 offences including burglary, was jailed for a total of two years and three months.
The court heard he and the second person, a juvenile who is subject to separate legal proceedings, had been armed with a crowbar that was used to smash their way in through a back window before ransacking the house.
Though pillow cases were filled with electrical items to be carried off, only a set of VW car keys were eventually stolen.
Prosecutors said his breach of the restraining order had occurred while he was on release under investigation for the burglary.
He had turned up at his former partner’s home drunk at 1am which had led to an incident in which she fell over and suffered head injuries.
John Morgans, mitigating, said: “He readily admits he has no arguments about what he has done and knows that he is going to prison.
“He understands the seriousness and the fact he now has that insight is indicative of real change almost entirely down to the fact he has got himself clean of drugs.”
Jailing him for 18 months for breaching the order and nine months for burglary to be served consecutively, Judge Alice Robinson said: “This was a disgraceful incident which follows repeated breaches of restraining orders in respect of the same partner.”
She ordered additional charges of unlawful wounding in relation to his former partner, which Smith had denied, should be left to lie on file.
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