Two bungling burglars jailed
PAIR CALLED RECOVERY TRUCK TO HELP THEM SHIFT A MOTORBIKE STOLEN IN RAID
A PAIR of burglars were caught with a motorbike they had wheeled from their victim’s home – after they called a recovery truck to help them transport it.
Reece Bradbury, 26, and 23-yearold Adrian Davidson stole the bike from a farm near Ashby, but then realised they had no way of getting it back to their home city of Nottingham.
The pair contacted friends and asked them to help, but none were available, Derby Crown Court heard.
The thieves had previously contacted the bike’s owner after he advertised it for sale on Facebook.
After getting the seller’s address, they went to the property on August 31 last year and cut through the bike locks in the garage.
When the owner was alerted by CCTV notifications on his phone that there had been a break-in and found the bike gone, he reported it
to police, prosecutor Sarah Slater said.
Meanwhile, Bradbury and Davidson had made their way from the Swadlincote farm and were in a field over the border in Leicestershire, still trying to get any of their friends to come out to help them.
Finally, they decided to call a
recovery truck, which turned up at the farm, to which the victim had by then returned.
Bradbury and Davidson then shared their location with the driver and the information was relayed to police.
When police arrived, Davidson kicked an officer in the chest, causing her to fall and hit her head on the pavement. She needed hospital treatment.
Jailing the pair, Judge Justin Wigoder called it a “serious assault on a police officer”.
After previously denying charges of non-domestic burglary, as well as assault of an emergency worker in Davidson’s case, the pair changed their pleas on the day of their trial.
At the time of the burglary, both men were serving suspended sentences for previous offences, but the defence counsels attempted to persuade Judge Wigdoder they would benefit from further suspended sentences.
Barry Grennan, mitigating for Bradbury, said: “He is in employment and is about to take a course at college as an electrician.
“He is frightened of going to prison and he does not want to throw away his work or the progress he has made.”
Patrick Williamson, mitigating for Davidson, said: “This was not a particularly well-planned burglary.” But the judge said the offences were aggravated by the fact that Bradbury was serving a suspended sentence for previous driving offences, and that the burglary was planned and committed at night.
Davidson, of Balmoral Road, Colwick, was sentenced to 27 months for the burglary and a further three months for the assault on the police officer.
Bradbury, of Walton Court, Carlton, was also sentenced to 27 months for the burglary, and a further 15 weeks for breaching his suspended sentence.
The pair must also pay a victim surcharge.
In a victim statement read out in court, the officer said: “I did not expect to come to work and be attacked. I come to work to help people and to protect people.
“As a result of being assaulted, I am still in pain and discomfort and it was pure luck that more serious injuries were not caused.”