Revolving prison door Hartlepool offender with 'dismal' record jailed for house burglary

Dwayne Ryan has been sentenced for burgling a woman’s home in Hartlepool and using the victim’s bank card to buy booze and cigarettes.

A judge said the 28-year-old has a “frankly dismal” record for house burglaries and jailed him for just under three years.

Ryan admitted four counts of fraud by using the stolen bank card but denied burgling the house in Turnbull Street last June.

Yet he was found guilty by a jury just before Christmas following a trial at Teesside Crown Court.

During the sneak burglary at around 6.30pm on June 24, two handbags and their contents, the bank card and a pair of trainers were stolen.

The woman who lived there was upstairs at the time but did not hear the crime taking place.

She discovered the property was missing when she went downstairs.

Shortly afterwards, she received text messages on her phone alerting her to her bank card being used.

Ryan, of Herbert Walk, Hartlepool, and a co-accomplice used it in local shops to ring up £64 worth of goods including alcohol and cigarettes.

The burglary put him in line for a minimum three-year prison sentence as the conviction meant he was a ‘third strike’ offender.

Following his arrest, he was hauled back to prison to finish serving the remainder of a previous sentence that he had previously been released early from.

In July 2019, he received 40 months prison after he admitted burgling three houses in Miers Avenue.

Ian Mullarkey, defending, said Ryan was making use of support services available to him in prison.

Judge Tim Stead said: “At 28 you know only too well you’ve got a frankly dismal record for burglary of dwellings.

"I can well see that you have from time to time said that you want to break the cycle of offending and prison.

"I’m not going to doubt that you’re sincere in that, I dare say you do.

"But you are going to have to act upon that decision from now on otherwise you will end up getting longer and longer sentences.”

Ryan was given 1,063 days for the burglary and 56 days to be served alongside for the frauds.

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