Hartlepool copper burglar locked up after judge says he 'bent over backwards' to help him

Cameron McLeod, 35, was spared prison when he was up before Teesside Crown Court last September for two burglaries.

Police found him on January 30 last year at the rear of a house in Harcourt Street where water was pouring out and he was arrested soaking wet.

He caused £1,000 of damage, and DNA checks from an earlier copper pipe burglary in Eddlestone Walk, on December 9, 2019, linked bloodstains to him. The damage there was £2,000 and the landlord had to delay handing the house over to a new tenant.

McLeod was given 10 months prison suspended for 20 months by the court, drug rehabilitation, probation and a curfew.

He breached the conditions of the order just the following month but the judge deferred taking any action to give McLeod a chance to prove he could turn things around.

But the court heard his engagement with probation and the drug rehab had been ‘highly sporadic’ and he had not complied with the curfew.

A further copper pipe burglary, committed before he was given the suspended sentence, also came to light which he admitted.

The landlord said McLeod, whose fingerprints were found on a sink, caused £1,400 damage and cost more in lost rent.

In the end the Judge Jonathan Carroll said he had no alternative but to jail him for the new and previous burglaries.

Judge Carroll said: “I have bent over backwards to help you find a way through all of this.

"I’m saddened on your behalf but there are times as a judge when I’m required to make difficult decisions and I’m afraid this is one of them.”

He said McLeod, of Glamis Walk, Hartlepool, had been given every chance but had not made the most of it.

Daniel Penman, defending, said McLeod’s breaches of the curfew were linked to anxiety and depression he suffers from and the need to get out the house.

Mr Penman added missed appointments with the probation service were down to McLeod’s faulty mobile phone.

He added McLeod is now clean of drugs after a long-standing addiction linked to his offending.

He was jailed for 10 months.

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