BURGLAR NEEDED ‘MONEY TO LIVE ON’
Homeless man jailed after raid on salon and dog groomers
A HOMELESS man living in a tent has been jailed after he smashed his way into a hair salon and dog grooming parlour.
Ryan Sedgwick used an iron bar to break into Toni & Guy in Newcastle town centre to steal goods worth £1,687.
Then, just two days later, he broke into Hounds, in Fogg Street, Newcastle, and swiped a £250 till drawer as well as £20 in petty cash.
Now the 27-year-old – who was sleeping rough in a tent behind Homebase at the time – has been jailed for 22 months.
Stoke-on-trent Crown Court heard the first burglary took place at the Ironmarket salon on September 10.
Prosecutor Emma Rutherford said that Sedgwick entered Toni & Guy ‘using a black iron bar’.
She added: “A fingerprint was recovered from the window that was linked to Sedgwick.”
The court heard the dog groomers was targeted on September 12.
Miss Rutherford said: “At 7.30am officers were made aware that there had been a burglary.
“The defendant had arrived equipped for burglary. There was some planning.”
Sedgwick, of Globe Street, Burslem, pleaded guilty to two charges of burglary.
Paul Cliff, mitigating, told the court that Sedgwick’s motive for the crimes was to raise funds to buy food.
He added: “There had been some use of substances at that time.
“He tells me that the motivating factor behind this offending was to try and raise money to live on.
“The reality is that there was no income.”
The court heard Sedgwick was in breach of a 12-month suspended sentence he had been handed following an ‘altercation’ and was subject to at the time of the burglaries.
Jailing him for 22 months, Judge Fletcher told Sedgwick: “You find yourself back in front of a crown court. You were made the subject of a sentence of 12 months in prison which were suspended.
“Shortly after you had been released you fell out of contact with the probation service.
“There would have been an
inconvenience not only to the owners but to the customers of those businesses.”
Speaking to The Sentinel at the time of the burglary, franchisee Gabrial Daniels, aged 39, of Newcastle, said: “We have really good quality CCTV and we could even see the offenders’ tattoos on show.
“They left blood and DNA and a handprint on a window.
“They took the takings, they took products, and they took our styling equipment which we use for clients.”