Persistent thief sent to jail

A thief who breached a suspended sentence by committing a burglary has been jailed for 11 months.

Lance Alan Ball (20) stole a folding bicycle and two tool boxes from the outhouse of a terraced home in Woodbine Avenue, Highfields, Leicester, on the night of July 18.

The occupant, who was asleep when the offence was committed, did not discover that the items were missing the next day.

Ball left a fingerprint on a tin found near the scene and was later arrested.

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The bike was recovered at the back of a hostel where he was staying, in Upper Tichborne Street, Highfields.

Police found the tool boxes in his hostel bedroom during a search.

Alan Murphy, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court: "This offence involved him being in the garden of someone's house, whilst not as serious as if he went into the house itself."

Ball pleaded guilty to burgling the outhouse.

Committing the burglary put him in breach of an eight-month suspended sentence imposed for a previous house burglary.

He admitted another breach of the same suspended sentence, by failing to attend some supervision appointments.

Linda Jerman, mitigating, said: "He made full admissions to the police."

She said he was playing football nearby and the ball went into the garden.

A friend went over the fence to fetch it and then brought the bike and tool boxes to his attention.He then jumped over the fence and became involved in the outhouse burglary," added Ms Jerman.

She claimed the door had been unlocked.

Judge Lynn Tayton QC activated seven months of Ball's suspended sentence, to run consecutively with four months for the latest offence.

She told the defendant, who is a window cleaner: "You haven't taken the court's last order seriously as you should have done and it hasn't acted as a deterrent."