A burglar who crept under the half open shutters of a Boots shop and stole £96 worth of makeup has been locked up.
Edward Hanley and an accomplice targeted the shop in the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre in Hartlepool as staff were preparing to open for the day.
Teesside Crown Court heard how the 52-year-old repeat offender was caught before he managed to get out of the shopping centre on December 19 last year.
Charlie Thompson, prosecuting, said: “They went under the shutter and stole £96 worth of makeup. They were stopped as they were leaving the shopping centre and the stolen goods were recovered.”
The court heard how the defendant had 37 convictions for 66 offences and was subject to a two-year suspended sentence at the time of the burglary.
Hanely, of St David’s Walk, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to the burglary and two further charges of breaching the terms of his suspended sentence order on November 26.
Sarah Lish, mitigating, said her client was doing well on his suspended sentence order until he returned to the Hartlepool area and only committed the offence as a "cry for help".
She said: “He seems to have fallen into a negative peer circle almost immediately and has then started misusing drugs, missing his probation appointments and committing further offences.”
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Judge Jonathan Carroll dismissed the defendant’s claim the burglary was a cry for help and locked him up for 21 months.
He said: “I utterly reject that proposition – it was not a cry for help. I can say that with confidence because you are part of the intensive supervision court cohort.
“You have almost 24/7 wrap-around care. You have probation officers, police officers, drug rehabilitation workers – the level of support around you means you had any number of people to turn to for help.
“To go and burgle Boots could not be a cry for help. It demonstrates that your mindset is a million miles away from what is necessary to have an intensive supervision sentence.”
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