Burglar fails in bid to take lorry and car

A bungling burglar broke into a Canterbury haulage yard and tried to steal a 17 tonne flat-bed lorry.

But teenager Doffy Parker was so incompetent he put it in reverse and smashed into a car and a pile of stacked tiles.

The 19- year- old was then hauled from the cab of the lorry by a nearby worker who heard the racket and held him until police arrived.

But a judge has heard that days later Parker was again seen trying to steal a Mazda car but failed after ripping out all of the wires.

He then broke into a nearby house of two pensioners – only to be spotted before he could take anything, Canterbury Crown Court was told.

Parker, of Rheims Close, Canterbury, was caught after leaving behind his DNA on a blood-covered screwdriver which he had left in the car near St Dunstan’s Terrace.

He has now pleaded guilty to burglary with intent, two charges of causing criminal damage, vehicle interference and attempted theft and was sent to a Young Offenders’ Institute for a year.

Prosecutor Robert De Banzie told how in July Parker was caught on CCTV in the premises of a haulage company in Hoath.

“After unsuccessfully trying several vehicles he managed to get into a lorry and reversed it across the yard before colliding with a stationary car and then the tiles.”

After his arrested he claimed he had drunk so much he couldn’t remember carrying out both raids.

Judge James O’mahony told him he needed “a short, sharp shock” adding: “You have to go into custody because these matters are too serious. Those pensioners were in their 80s and the effect on them both of you breaking in has been disastrous.”