Burglar walks free after judge gives him one last chance

5:13pm Thursday 22nd November 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Joe Willis, Regional Chief Reporter

A BURGLAR who climbed through a house window while the occupants slept has walked free from court after a judge gave him one last chance.

Daniel Drury stole vodka, £35 from a purse, a pot of £1 coins, credit cards and chocolate after breaking into a house in High Street West, Redcar, on August 26.

The burglary happened in the middle of the night when the couple living in the property were asleep upstairs.

The 24-year-old, of Lingdale Grove, Redcar, was arrested after his fingerprints were found at the scene.

He admitted the crime when interviewed by police, saying he had earlier drunk more than five litres of cider and taken sleeping pills.

After the burglary, he fell asleep in a bush on a golf course and had little recollection of the incident, Teesside Crown Court heard today (Thursday).

Julian Gaskin, mitigating, said his client wanted to apologise for the moment of "absolute stupidity".

He added: "This is a young man who can do things. He tells me he wants to get an education and he's quite clearly motivated to change."

The court heard Drury, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, had eight previous convictions for 11 offences, including criminal damage, theft and causing racially aggravated alarm and distress.

Sentencing him to ten months, suspended for two years, Judge Peter Armstrong told the defendant: "This is your first dwelling burglary - it better be your last because otherwise you will be placed in prison for a considerable time."

Drury was made subject to an 18-month supervision order, a six-month alcohol treatment order and a four-month curfew.

Comments(10)

bishop1 says...
8:01pm Thu 22 Nov 12

slap on the wrist for a domestic burglar , why am I not surprised ?

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Butafly says...
8:04pm Thu 22 Nov 12

"One last chance", "8 previous convictions" ??? No wonder criminals do wrong time and time again.
Judge says "there u go son,pat on the back,see u again soon".
The innocent are the people who's homes they rob,not the person commiting the (can I say)crime!
The justice system need to learn from mistakes by not being so soft,can't they see why there's so many re-offenders?
Make prison a hateful strict place.

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outragedofmiltonkeynes says...
8:53pm Thu 22 Nov 12

Jails are overcrowded so Judges are reluctant to lock these plebs up apparently? Tell you what then, as well as the suspended sentence why not stop his dole money? Of course im presuming he is in receipt of benefits but i cant really see him being in gainful employment.

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5under1and says...
8:59pm Thu 22 Nov 12

He`ll be back before a judge in no time!

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Butafly says...
10:02pm Thu 22 Nov 12

Yep over crowded so they say, maybe more money should be spent building more hotels,I mean prisons, I'm sure its wasted on certain other things.
Then again more prisons mean more workers paying to keep the extra criminals in warmth,shelter,gym,i
nternet,computers...

If the prisons we're a lot harsher in the uk like they are in america then less people would want to re-offend.
The family he robbed should have the pleasure cutting his fingers off 1 by 1

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tabby67 says...
8:20am Fri 23 Nov 12

No wonder they do it time and time again what is wrong with these judges they need to hit them hard this is not justice! What about the poor family who will now be traumatised for a very long time wondering will they come back!

Just knowing somebody who shouldn't be in your house is in it would be enough to frighten anybody it makes me so angry! The laws seriously need updating, life is not the same now as it used to be!

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RobAycliffe says...
8:20am Fri 23 Nov 12

Butafly says, "If the prisons we're a lot harsher in the uk like they are in america then less people would want to re-offend."

Then why are the recidivism rates in the USA higher than in the UK?

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Butafly says...
3:22pm Fri 23 Nov 12

I aint gone into detail or read in depth like u, was goin off a prog I seen other week, the way they were treated in the prisons shown, should be like it here.
Was just having an opinion.
From what u say then prison should be tougher everywhere.
If people are going to re-offend then its worth while for them as they know they'l just get a slap on wrist

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RobAycliffe says...
3:39pm Fri 23 Nov 12

Butafly says, "From what u say then prison should be tougher everywhere."

Well no actually, that doesn't follow at all. The US has one of the harshest prison systems in the 'Western' world. A quarter of the world's prisoners are in US jails. Overcrowding and brutal conditions are the norm. But that doesn't prevent re-offending, as the numbers show.

If you want to stop re-offending then you have to rehabilitate.

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Butafly says...
3:57pm Fri 23 Nov 12

Maybe my opinion was wrong,like I say I have not gone into full details and numbers and don't know as much as you on this so maybe shouldn't of made my comment!
Either way I think it was abit of a 'slap on wrist' this lad got concidering the readup

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