A thief caught in the act as he tried to burgle a man’s Carlisle home has been given an immediate 12-month prison sentence.
The householder was watching television at his Alfred Street North home, near the city centre, on April 4. He received a notification on his phone that someone was outside although the doorbell camera had not been rung.
A second notification then alerted him to someone being in his hallway of his home.
And when he went into the hall, he saw heavily convicted intruder Richard Foster, 51, who had been released from prison on licence only days earlier.
Foster made a confusing comment and then left the property. When the man later viewed video footage he saw Foster had entered the home and opened drawers in the hallway. Nothing was stolen.
Foster made no comment when quizzed by police but later, in court, admitted one offence of burglary with intent to steal.
The court heard Foster had 126 past offences on a criminal record which included a number of burglaries until 1990. Thereafter, his rap sheet was peppered with thefts although in the last two years there was an attempted burglary of a home and a commercial break-in.
Mitigating, defence lawyer Marion Weir said Foster’s drug use had been a long-standing problem. “He has tried over the years to tackle that. He accepts that is something that has plagued him in his 51 years,” said Ms Weir.
During the past two years, Foster, of no fixed address, had lost both his mother and sister.
“That seems to have been something of a trigger for him to return to his old ways,” said Ms Weir. “He was released from custody on licence, was homeless and consumed some street Valium. The rest of it really is a blur.
Judge Nicholas Barker imposed an immediate 12-month prison sentence.
