Thief stole every piece of copper from house
HOME WAS LEFT LIKE ‘AN EMPTY SHELL’
A THIEF who stripped a house of all its copper piping, every single radiator and even the boiler, has avoided a jail sentence.
Jordan Ward, 25, left the property on Cornwall Street in Hartlepool, “an empty shell that could not be rented out” after he carried out the burglary on January 13, 2020.
But on Thursday, Teesside Crown Court heard that Ward did not make a penny from the copper he stole.
Defence barrister Martin Scarborough told the court that Ward was being exploited by others, and that he was working as part of a gang who took all the money they made from selling the stolen copper.
Mr Scarborough said that other men also took part in the burglary, but that Ward was caught after police found a drop of his blood on a floorboard that had been pulled up.
The court heard that Ward was frightened of reprisals if he “grassed up the other men” and that he suffers from learning difficulties.
Mr Scarborough said that his client is “someone who can easily be led and bullied” and that he struggles with a
crack cocaine addiction. The court heard that the burglary had been discovered by a property manager, who had gone to the house to carry out an inspection in July 2020.
The manager found the house in a mess, with the carpets and floorboards ripped up.
Prosecutor Uzma Khan said that house was left with £14,000 of damage.
Ward, now of Riverside Terrace, Millfield in Sunderland, but formerly of Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to burglary at an earlier hearing.
The court heard that Ward has moved away from “bad influences” in Hartlepool to take a part-time, cash-inhand landscaping job in Sunderland, but that his mother – who came to court with him – is worried about him living further away and by himself.
Judge Christopher Smith told Ward: “This was a bad burglary. You and others left that house an empty shell, no one could live in it as a consequence.
“There is considerable mitigation in this case, I’m satisfied you were taken advantage of”.
The judge handed Ward a two-year community order, with a nine-month drug rehabilitation requirement and 30 rehabilitation days.
Judge Smith told Ward: “You’ve got a crack cocaine problem – that costs money.
“A lot of people who abuse crack cocaine end up burgling and stealing and find themselves in hot water, and you’re in danger of that.
“Probation will give you drugs tests. I’ll remember your case.
“If you don’t co-operate with probation you’ll be back before the court and your mother will sit at the front of the public gallery and she’ll watch you go downstairs. Nobody wants that.”
“No I don’t”, said Ward
“I don’t want to go to jail”.