Girlfriend who joined men in bungled raid on pub spared jail

SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR PREGNANT 35-YEAR-OLD

A GIRLFRIEND accompanied her partner on a trip to a pub – to help commit a break-in.

Danielle Lunn, her boyfriend Michael Settersfield and another man, Darren Ashley BrownHolmes, forced entry into the Walkabout, in Belvoir Street, Leicester, in the early hours.

Tom Welshman, prosecuting Lunn, told Leicester Crown Court that the two males were captured on CCTV entering the premises by damaging a door. Lunn was also seen on the footage.

In an earlier hearing, details were given of the bungling men setting off the intruder alarm – alerting the manager who lived upstairs.

They also tried breaking open a gaming machine with a fire extinguisher, setting it off in the process.

Settersfield ran out with two till drawers which contained nothing more than a phone charging cable.

All three made off on bicycles, but the police caught up with 35-year-old Lunn.

She told officers she had been out for the evening in the company of her then boyfriend, Settersfield, and that the break-in was not planned.

Lunn, of no fixed address, admitted burglary and breaching a community order for shoplifting.

She also admitted failing to attend court, in September, which resulted in her being arrested on a warrant last Monday and remanded into custody.

Lunn’s solicitor, Helen Johnson, said her client, who has a history of drug misuse, had split up with Settersfield since the burglary, on November 11, 2020.

The court heard she was now turning her life around, addressing her issues and in a new relationship, with a baby on the way.

Sentencing Lunn, Recorder Owain Thomas QC said: “You have 29 offences on your record, of which 12 are theft-related. There’s no evidence of planning and this was opportunistic.

“There might also have been an element of exploitation by your expartner.”

Lunn was given a six-week jail sentence, suspended for one year.

The court heard that Settersfield, 35, of no fixed address, was jailed for seven-and-a-half months, last August.

Brown-Holmes, 40, of no fixed address, was sentenced, at a different hearing, to eight months custody for his involvement.