A BURGLAR who broke into a man’s Carlisle home while he was away receiving rehabilitation has been jailed for a year.
Police received a running commentary from an anonymous caller who reported seeing a man walking down Highfield Avenue in Morton, at 2-20am on September 18 last year after the break-in, carrying a flat screen television.
A police dog brought to the scene led officers to 41-year-old Lee Paul Laurie’s flat on the same street where they saw he matched a description provided by the mystery eyewitness. DNA also linked him to the point of entry at the unoccupied address on Highfield Avenue which had been burgled.
Further information was passed to police that two other neighbours – 28-year-old Domonic Winner and his 21-year-old partner Shannon Louanne Cherry – may be linked to stolen items.
And when officers called at their home on Highfield Avenue, two flat screen televisions and a sound bar which had been pinched from the victim were found inside.
Laurie later admitted burglary and, at Carlisle Crown Court today (THURS), Winner and Cherry pleaded guilty to handling the stolen goods.
Speaking of a “mean offence”, Judge Brian Cummings QC sent Laurie to prison for a year and Winner for six months. He suspended Cherry’s four-month jail term for 18 months, and ordered her to complete unpaid work and rehabilitation.
