Judge slams care home raid charge
A BURGLAR with 133 convictions who evaded jail led a judge to blast the crown prosecution service.
A break-in by William Napier, 42, at a care home was labelled non-domestic.
He would have received at least three years for a domestic burglary charge.
Judge Simon Batiste, at Newcastle crown court, said: “So the Crown suggest a residential care home is not a dwelling?”
“I find it a remarkable decision bearing in mind he is a third-strike burglar.”
A CPS spokesman said: “The communal areas of the home were not legally classed as residential.”
Napier admitted the raid at Balmoral Court home in Byker, Newcastle. He was given a suspended jail term for two years and a curfew.