Brothers burgled derelict school
TWO brothers raided a derelict school for copper piping after struggling with their benefits, a court heard.
Gary and George Taylor, from Bacup, broke into the former Ivy Bank school in Burnley equipped with torches and screwdrivers on the evening of July 1.
Prosecutor Charlotte Crane said security officers spotted the torches and found the brothers hiding in a store room cupboard. When they tried to flee the scene they were detained along with a third offender Michael Talbot, Burnley Magistrates Court heard.
Miss Crane told the hearing: “Your Worships what you do when a school is empty is you wait until 10pm at night when there’s no one around, you get your torch and your screwdriver and you go in there and strip it of copper piping. Well that’s what the Taylors think is acceptable to do.
“Security are employed to protect this abandoned premises. They say that they see a torch inside and they conduct an investigation of the premises.
“[The defendants] were initially hiding in a store room cupboard but set off on the run. They are apprehended by officers and what’s piled up on the floor is copper piping.
“It appears as though their friend [Talbot] is also trying to hide in a nearby store room and again he is also apprehended.
“The copper wasn’t physically removed from the premises. It was piled up and had been crudely removed from inside ceilings and damage has been caused.”
Gary Taylor, 26, of Russell Street, Bacup, and George Taylor, 28, formerly of Alma Street, Bacup, and now of Rochdale, both pleaded guilty to burglary.
Talbot, 31, of Russell Street, Bacup, pleaded guilty to the same charge at an earlier hearing and was fined £80 and ordered to pay £85 costs.
Janet Sime, defending the Taylors, said: “They had been told by other people in Rossendale that everybody was going to this school that had been empty for a while and taking bits of things for themselves to make do.
“They had not received any benefits and were struggling to make ends meet. Someone offered to take them over there and a lot of the damage and piping had already been dealt with.”
Miss Sime requested the magistrates to give the Taylors the same financial penalty as Talbot ‘for the sake of parity’ however they adjourned sentence for the probation service to prepare an ‘all option’ report.