Foiled Hartlepool burglar caught after neighbours spot raiders legs waving in the air

Officers collared Keith Ingham, 39, before his feet touched the ground after bystanders witnessed the curious scene at a property in a Hartlepool street and reported it to Cleveland Police.

A judge at Teesside Crown Court said that the offence was aggravated because Ingham had taken a bag with tools to tackle the glass, and he had an as-yet untraced accomplice acting as a look-out during the attempted burglary.

The court heard Ingham had five previous convictions for house burglaries and more for other raids on non-domestic properties.

The 39-year-old was also in possession of cannabis and amphetamines when he was caught at the unoccupied house in Stockton Road, Hartlepool, on December 7, 2019, prosecutor Sam Faulks told the court.

The court heard a few weeks later on January 3, two Police Community Support officers patrolling in Hartlepool at 10pm saw Ingham in a highly intoxicated state.

They alerted officers, who searched him and found a CS gas canister hidden in the lining of his jogging bottoms.

It was a prohibited weapon, and Ingham was banned for life from possessing it because of his previous convictions, the court heard.

Ingham said that he carried it for his own protection because he had been stabbed before, Mr Faulks told the court.

Ingham told a probation officer interviewing him for a professional-sentenced report that his offending was all the result of his drug addiction, said Jon Harley, defending.

He said that the attempted burglary was counter-balanced by his previous burglary record, and the CS gas canister was not produced or used.

Judge Howard Crowson said that he would reduce the sentence because of the difficult prison regime during the Covid-19 epidemic.

Ingham, of Lister Street, Hartlepool, who wore a black face mask throughout the videolink from Durham Prison, was jailed for 20 months after he pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and possession of a prohibited weapon and cannabis and amphetamines.

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