A THIEF has been jailed after his Eden Valley victim used Facebook in a successful bid to track him down.
John Cash was caught red-handed along with a partner in crime in the process of stealing two bags from the back of a man’s car in Shap after the rear windscreen was smashed late on September 11.
Although the householder initially challenged the pair having been woken by a car alarm sounding, he backed off when threats were made and the thieves drove off in a car which had a flat tyre.
But Carlisle Crown Court heard the victim then penned a Facebook post in a bid to trace the car – and swiftly learned it had been spotted in nearby Bampton. He went there with his brother and a friend, and found the two criminals. But he was then hit on the head, cheek and arm by rocks thrown by 32-year-old Cash – who was “extremely drunk” – and later needed hospital treatment.
Police had been contacted, and arrested both Cash and another man nearby.
Although Cash initially denied being involved, he later admitted stealing from the vehicle and assaulting the householder, causing him actual bodily harm.
Cash, of Laverty Park, Dublin, was jailed for eight months at the crown court by Judge Andrew Jefferies QC. The other man was said to have received a conditional discharge when sentenced at an earlier magistrates’ court hearing after admitting a theft charge.
