Man and woman jailed for Hartlepool burglaries where family's Nissan car was stolen from drive

Brian Plumb and partner in crime Chloe Sowerby broke into one house in Greatham village and made off with cash and bank cards and tried to burgle another home.

Plumb, 47, also broke into a home on Easington Road, Hartlepool, while the family were out, and stole a child’s £100 birthday money and the family’s car.

Meanwhile, Sowerby, 43, went on to take part in a vicious street robbery with two other men while she was on bail for the burglary offences.

Plumb was caught on CCTV shining a torch into a front window of a house in The Grove, Greatham, at about 1.30 in the morning on October 25 last year while Sowerby acted as a lookout.

They both burgled a neighbouring house while the occupants were asleep.

Shaun Dryden, prosecuting, at Teesside Crown Court said as well as debit cards being stolen, also gone was £273 from a tin which had been saved by Greatham’s gardening group charity.

The previous day, Plumb broke into the home on Easington Road which the family had left secure with their black Nissan parked on the drive.

"When they returned they noticed the car had been stolen and the house had been burgled,” said Mr Dryden.

Plumb and Sowerby were seen in the stolen car, which was displaying false plates, later that evening at a petrol station in Billingham when they used the bank card stolen in the burglary to pay for fuel and other goods.

They also used debit cards stolen in the Greatham burglary at a petrol station in Wheatley Hill.

Plumb, who has a long record for burglary, admitted two counts of burglary, attempted burglary, three counts of theft and two of fraud by false representation.

Sowerby, of Harington Road, Stockton, admitted one burglary, attempted burglary, two frauds and handling stolen goods.

She was also sentenced for her part in a late night robbery of a door supervisor in Stockton on April 21 together with two Stockton men.

Sowerby was jailed for a total of 63 months and Plumb, of Dent Street, Hartlepool, was jailed for four and a half years.