Serial Hartlepool burglar back in jail after attacking victim during attempted Dyson theft

Andrew Rudd, 47, who has been jailed a number of times in the past for house breaking, is behind bars again after walking into a man’s home and trying to steal a Dyson vacuum cleaner.

He was jailed for more than two years inside at Teesside Crown Court for the burglary and other offences.

But the judge Recorder Benjamin Nolan QC warned he faces even longer sentences if he continues to commit crime.

Rudd burgled a house in Suggitt Street, Hartlepool, by walking through the front door at about 9.15pm on July 2 while the person who lives there was in the living room.

He caught Rudd holding his vacuum cleaner and asked him what he was doing there.

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, said: “The defendant said ‘my girlfriend has given me a key to get in’ and [the householder] told him to get out.

"He took the vacuum cleaner from the defendant and tried to usher him out of the door and the defendant pushed and shoved [him] causing him to bang his left elbow on the wall.”

Afterwards Rudd went to a house in Duke Street where a woman was in bed and he banged on the door demanding to be let in.

Miss Akinson said he had got the wrong house but the woman was frightened by Rudd’s actions.

He admitted burglary, assault by beating, and threatening violence to secure entry to a premises.

Paul Cleasby, defending, said Rudd had relapsed into taking drugs after previously trying to rid himself of them.

Mr Cleasby said: “He’s not a young man anymore and he’s ashamed of the way he has relapsed again.

“He expresses a degree of frustration. He wishes to express remorse for his actions to the householders who were not in any way to blame for his behaviour on that day.”

Rudd, of Duke Street, Hartlepool, was jailed for 876 days, the mandatory minimum for people who commit three or more burglaries.

Recorder Nolan told him: “You are becoming an incorrigible burglar.

"I’m prepared to pass the minimum term and no more on this occasion, but your sentences will, if you continue, start going up quite steeply.”

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