A bungling burglar who was nabbed by police after leaving blood at the scene of his crime has been jailed for more than a year.
Carlisle Crown Court heard how the owner of Church Car Sales in Whitehaven left his premises secure on August 20 but returned the next morning and discovered a break-in.
Personal items from his office were strewn across the forecourt, a window had been smashed, a rock was lying on the ground and there was blood on broken glass.
More blood was found inside one of two cars on the site which had also been damaged.
The owner was left with a £300 bill. “He is just trying to run a business,” prosecutor Gerard Rogerson told the court.
“He works hard to maintain that business, which he started from scratch. He says nobody has the right to disrupt his business and cause damage to that extent.
As a result of having to clean up his office and business he lost six hours of trading time that day.”
After blood samples were taken and analysed, they gave a match to prolific 44-year-old heroin addict Lee Jefferson — a homeless man with 163 previous offences to his name who appeared in court today via video link from custody.
He handed over a knife when police caught up with him in October, and later admitted both burglary and having a bladed article.
Kim Whittlestone, defending, confirmed class A drug addiction lay behind Jefferson’s prolific criminal conduct. The burglary, she said, was “unpleasant and unsophisticated”.
Jailing Jefferson for eight months, plus 140 consecutive days for the knife crime, Judge Simon Medland QC said: “It is greatly unfortunate that you are where you are.
“But the truth is, you are where you are because you are addicted to class A drugs and your addiction, and the length of time over which is has persisted, is such that I barely need to tell you that class A drugs destroy people’s lives.”
