Racist burglar made to wear spit hood after saying he had Covid
MARK LEWIS, APPEARED BEFORE HULL CROWN COURT
A 44-year-old man launched into a vile racist tirade while being apprehended by police after burgling a garage in Hull.
Hull Crown Court heard how Mark Lewis, of Cranbrook Avenue, was caught by police with a bicycle and a pressure washer balancing on its handle bars, both items he had stolen from a garage in Strathmore Avenue, off Beverley Road, in the early hours of April 5.
Officers approached Lewis, but he became aggressive and argumentative.
Prosecuting, Phillip Evans, described how he told police he had coronavirus and was subsequently taken to the ground and fitted with a spit hood.
But Lewis’ “threatening and abusive” behaviour continued, telling them: “I’ll kick the f*** out of any copper who comes nearest.”
Mr Evans described how his attention then fixed on one officer in particular in a horrific racist slur.
On arrest Lewis replied that “didn’t give a f***”.
Mitigating, Charlotte Baines asked that Recorder Singh took the context of the outburst into consideration.
She said: “This was at the time of arrest when emotions were running high and he was under the influence of drugs.”
Moments before he had been seen by a resident in Strathmore Avenue, breaking into a neighbour’s garage on a personal CCTV system. he
The prosecution noted that the hinges on the property’s metal gates had been “completely removed” and suggested this showed Lewis had been “equipped to commit the offence.”
Lewis had 30 previous convictions for 92 offences of which more than 53 were of an acquisitive nature.
The court also heard how on March 7, Lewis had broken into a property in Compass Road, again near Beverley Road, stealing two bikes with a combined value of almost £500.
DNA evidence connected Lewis to the crime, which left his elderly victims “angry and worried for their safety.”
Lewis pleaded guilty to both burglary offences and a racially aggravated public order offence at the lower courts.
His defence told the court that he was in the grips of addiction at the time of the burglary and was remorseful for his actions.
Ms Baines said: “He was at a very significantly bad place earlier in the year. He had an addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol and had spiralled out of control.”
She added: “He has reached a cross roads at 44 years old and he has indicated change.”
Recorder Singh handed Lewis a sentence of nine months in prison for the two burglaries and racially aggravated public order offence and said: “I take the view the offences warrant immediate custody.
“Certainly, the last saying that to an officer, but also the other two set against a background of appalling antecedent”.