Burglar who crept into Hartlepool home while occupant slept spared jail

Adam Thomson crept into the house in Bruce Crescent, Hartlepool, while the occupant was asleep during a two-month crime spree in late 2018.

Teesside Crown Court heard the burglary victim’s mother had just passed away and he had gone to bed early.

Philip Morley, prosecuting, said: “He was awoken at 7.45pm with the sound of his bedroom door opening.

"He heard a voice mumbling his brother’s name and then heard footsteps going down the stairs.

"[The victim] got up and went downstairs to discover that his living room window was now wide open and the TV was off the wall and had been unplugged.”

He also found other windows open and his ladder propped up against the wall.

Fortunately, nothing had been taken. Thomson, 28, of Warren Road Hartlepool, was linked to the burglary by forensics.

He pleaded guilty to the offence on Tuesday, March 9, 2021.

In the meantime Thomson was jailed for 34 months in June 2019 for a number of other offences committed around the same time.

He has since been released on licence and his barrister Stephen Constantine said he had now turned his back on crime.

Mr Constantine said the crime spree in late 2018 was due to mental health difficulties and a drugs problem that Thomson has now got over.

"Being a father takes up most of his time,” he said. “He seems to have learned his lesson and made good.”

The Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Paul Watson QC gave him 12 months prison for the Bruce Crescent burglary but suspended the sentence for 12 months.

He said it was an ‘unusual case’ due to the order in which the offences were dealt with by the court.

Judge Watson said: “Since your release you have kept out of trouble. I’m told and fully accept you have been making considerable efforts to turn your life around, much to the good.

"I’m quite satisfied it would be unjust to send you to prison.”

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