A wheelchair-using habitual offender has been locked up for his latest spate of offences.
David Lawrence was caught red-handed trying a number of doors on homes and vehicles in York and Middlesbrough.
The one-legged would-be thief and burglar was initially stopped in his tracks targeting cars outside an office block near York Railway Station in August.
Teesside Crown Court heard how the prolific offender was arrested again in September when he was spotted wheeling himself around Middlesbrough looking for things to steal.
Joe Hedworth, prosecuting, said on the first set of offences Lawrence was confronted by staff who had watched him trying to gain entry to a red Hyundai i10 in York.
Dealing with the Middlesbrough offences, he said: “A woman heard clicking and rattling of her front door as though someone was trying to open it.
“She immediately locked at her door camera and saw the defendant in his wheelchair using one leg to move away from her house towards her car.
“She watched as he attempted to open two more cars, another front door and then two separate vehicles before leaving the area.”
Mr Hedworth said Lawrence then stole some items from a car parked on Marton Road which is around six minutes away the earlier attempts on Byelands Street.
Lawrence, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to vehicle interference on August 12 in York and two attempted burglaries, two charges of vehicle interference and one charge of theft from a motor vehicle in Middlesbrough on September 8.
Lee Goodchild, mitigating, said his client had a woeful record for offending but maintained that there was minimal planning in his behaviour.
“We have an individual in a wheelchair with the record he has got,” he said. “The wheelchair is important because what is the prospect of anyone else being around in a wheelchair at that time in the morning trying door handles.
“There was very little prospect of him getting away with it as he was going down the street.”
Judge Advocate Tom Mitchell sentenced Lawrence to a total of 17 months in custody as he described him as "the least likely person to make a speedy getaway".
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He said: “I have to take real notice of your physical condition. It is a hard thing to see, a pitiful thing to see, a man who has recently lost his leg in custody facing sentence again for offences of this kind.
“It is hard to know what to do with you, there is a change for you to make and I am told you are making it now.
“I sincerely hope you are because if you don’t the sentences will only get bigger.”
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