Man damaged his ex-girlfriend’s home ‘getting work clothes’
JON MACPHERSON
AMAN damaged his e x- g i r l f r i e nd’s house after going ‘to get back his clothes’, a court round work heard.
Aleric George McKee climbed onto the kitchen roof at a property on Spring Hill Road in Accrington and damaged guttering and brackets before snapping a door handle.
The 23-year-old, formerly of Sparth Avenue, Clayton-le-Moors, was caught after leaving blood at the scene.
McKee was originally charged with an offence of attempted burglary but pleaded guilty on the day of trial at Burnley Crown Court to criminal damage.
He was given a 12-month conditional discharge order and a threeyear restraining order after spending nearly six months on remand in custody.
McKee is awaiting sentence on separate theft and counterfeit currency offences.
Elizabeth Evans, prosecuting, told the court how McKee had been in a relationship with the victim and that he had previously been allowed to stay at the property until a ‘dispute’ several days earlier.
The court was told that the victim told McKee to leave the house and to leave his key.
McKee, who has 23 previous convictions for 43 offences, returned to the property sometime between 6pm on May 22 and 6pm on May 23 last year and damaged the guttering and door handle. A victim impact statement read out at court told how she was left ‘distressed and afraid’.
Anthony Parkinson, defending, said McKee had been in an ‘on-off relationship’ with the victim and that he ‘was only trying to enter the property in order to retrieve work clothing’.
Judge Ian Leeming QC said McKee ‘went about it in a rough way’ and was ‘reckless by causing damage’
McKee earlier pleaded guilty at the magistrates court to 10 shoplifting offences and the theft of a Samsung mobile phone worth £700.
The shoplifting offences happened at supermarkets across Hyndburn between June and July last year, including Tesco and Morrisons in Great Harwood and Co-op stores in Clayton-le-Moors and Accrington, and involved the theft of champagne, vodka, axes and cakes.
McKee also pleaded guilty to five separate offences of using counterfeit £20 notes in Accrington, Clitheroe and Burnley between January 25 and February 1. He will be sentenced at a later date.