A judge said a home-owner who disturbed a burglar during an early morning break-in was quite right to tell him to “f... off.”
Jailing Lucian Craven for 18 months, Recorder Samantha Leigh told him: “You know the effect burglaries have on people - especially when they find people in their own homes. This gentleman quite rightly told you to f... off.”
Craven, 22, who owed £3,000 in drug debt, tried to clamber in through the window of a 67-year-old man’s home in Emma Rothschild Court, Tring, just before 6am on August 3 this year, St Albans Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Colin Banham said: “The man was woken and saw the defendant half in and half out of the window on the way into the house. The defendant managed to get away and made off after the occupant told him to ‘f... off.’”
Three days later, at around midnight on August 6, Craven stole a laptop after getting into a house in Wingrave Road, Tring. He had tried to break into a house in Longbridge Close in the town on August 7 and stole a TV from a house in nearby Sutton Close on the same day.
Craven was caught after his fingerprints were found on a whisky bottle discarded in a garden near the Longbridge Close property. His fingerprints had also been found on the window of the house in Emma Rothschild Court. The TV and laptop were recovered.
The former kitchen porter, of High Street, Tring, appeared for sentence after earlier pleading guilty to two counts of burglary and one of attempted burglary. He asked for one offence of burglary to be taken into consideration. He had no previous convictions for burglary.