FOOTPRINTS in the snow led police straight to a teenager’s door after he burgled holiday caravans.
Michael Adam West, 19, and at least one accomplice broke into ten caravans on the Kingfisher site in Frosterley, Weardale, while it was closed for the winter.
Durham Crown Court heard they used broken plant pots to smash windows to get in the static caravans on December 14, last year.
However, they took so much property that there was no room for West to ride in the getaway vehicle, so he walked home in the snow to nearby Wear View, Frosterley.
Sam Faulks, prosecuting, said police simply followed his footprints to his home and arrested him, removing a pair of training shoes that matched the footprints.
When questioned, he initially denied the offences, saying the trainers were not his.
The court was told that several days later, a further eight caravans were burgled on the Bridgend site, also in Frosterley.
Mr Faulks said a total of £4,640 worth of property was taken from the 18 caravans in the two raids.
While police tried to detain West after the second raids, he struggled violently and threatened them.
Mr Faulks said that he later told police he was merely the lookout for one of the site raids and that his reward was to have been a bag of cannabis.
West, now of High Street, Willington, County Durham, admitted burglary, using threatening words and behaviour and breaching a previous suspended sentence.
Warren Grier, in mitigation, described him as a troubled young man in the past, but said he had taken steps to curb his alcohol and drugs misuse.
Mr Grier said West has been in prison in Stockton awaiting sentence since April 8 and has found it hard to adjust to his first taste of custody.
Imposing a 12-month sentence in a young offenders’ institution, Judge Christopher Prince told West: “You have a long record for offences of common assault, breaching an anti-social behaviour order and assault against police.
You have shown yourself to be violent, a bully and thoroughly dishonest.”
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