James Hill also stole a mobility scooter from a disabled man
A heartless burglar who stole a disabled man’s mobility scooter during a series of break-ins has been spared a lengthy jail sentence - because the judge doesn't want him mixing with bad characters he had been "trying to get away from".
James Hill, of Eccles Close, Coventry, had pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to three burglaries, including breaking into a Coventry home while a mother and her four children were sleeping upstairs.
The first break-in happened on December 1 at the Coventry home of a vulnerable disabled man, prosecutor Graham Russell told the court.
Then on December 13, the court heard how a woman and her four children were in bed at their home in Hornsey Close, Coventry, when Hill broke in in the early hours of the morning.
The woman was woken at 4.30am by Hill in her bedroom, and he ran out when she challenged him.
He escaped from the house with property including a £1,200 42-inch television.
The same night Hill had also broken into the shed of a house in nearby Hermes Crescent, from where he had stolen tools and fishing tackle.
Defence lawyer Ian Speed told the court he had represented three generations of the Hill family in criminal proceedings and it was "quite amazing" how the 21-year-old had managed to avoid a conviction until this point.
jailing Hill, Deputy Judge Richard Griffith-Jones told him: “I cannot pass over convictions like this.
"You have got to go to custody, but there is some force in that which Mr Speed submits on your behalf.
“You have to go to custody, but it’s necessary to ensure you are not there so long that you become entrenched in the culture.
"It would have been considerably longer if it had not been for the submissions made on your behalf.”
I'm sure he'll be totally reformed when he leaves prison!
