An armed masked gang who were looking for a cannabis farm left empty-handed when they broke into the wrong house and threatened the occupant with knives.
Mohammed Al Hamar was one of four bungling burglars who were caught on CCTV in the rear yard of the terraced house in Darlington before two entered the victim’s home.
The 22-year-old was tracked down after his DNA was found on a vape discarded in the yard and on an iPhone recovered from inside the house on Kitchener Street.
Matthew Bean, prosecuting, said the householder found two men in the downstairs of his home when he was disturbed in the early hours of February 16 last year.
He said: “He noticed two males in his property; one was carrying a large kitchen knife, which was shown to him, and the male told him to stay where he was.
“He then asked him where the keys were and he said he didn’t know before he was told by the man with the knife not to come anywhere near him.
“The males then left. The victim checked his home and realised nothing was taken.”
Mr Bean said the victim’s CCTV captured the four males climbing over the rear wall of the property before two entered through a window, and one cut the wire to the security camera.
The court heard how the intended target of the burglary with the next-door property, which was later discovered to be operating as a cannabis farm.
In a victim personal statement, the man said he could forgive the defendant for what he did when he broke into his home.
Al Hamar, of Bramwell House, Churchill, London, pleaded guilty to burglary on the day he was due to stand trial.
Jonathan Gittins, mitigating, said the Egyptian was effectively homeless at the time of the offence and urged the judge to pass a suspended prison sentence as he was the only person to be brought to court for the offence.
He said: “It was accepted that he was not one of the two males who entered the house or carrying a knife.”
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Recorder Nicholas Lumley KC sentenced Al Hamar the recently married defendant to three years and six months in custody for the bungled burglary.
He said: “Contrary to the lies that you told in your pre-sentence report, four young men travelled from London, and I believe you were a recruiter to destroy or seize with violence a cannabis farm in Darlington.
“I doubt very much indeed that the home of the victim was truly the intended target.
“This was a pre-planned, pre-meditated and focussed trip. Each of you sharing a responsibility for what was the follow and each of you supporting the others.”
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