Two-year sentence for pub burglar

5:00pm Monday 6th October 2008

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A REPEAT offender who is to become a father for the fourth time has been jailed after admitting burgling a pub.

Carl Cartwright appeared in Warrington Crown Court on Friday charged with burgling The Cross pub on June 27.

David Jones, prosecuting Cartwright, said: “The licensee had closed and locked the pub at about 12.30am on June 27. He went to bed, at about 4am he was woken by his door opening.

“He saw the door opening and heard someone say ‘there’s someone in get out’.

The court heard how the defendant, along with an accomplice, escaped on push-bikes, leaving blood at the scene after smashing a window.

The 35-year-old, of Toll Bar Road, in Orford, denied that the blood found on the window was his but entered a prompt guilty plea in court.

Mr Jones said the crime was of medium level because the victim was at home, but it was thought that the pair had expected the property to be empty.

Michael Davies, defending Cartwright, said: “Being in and out of prison has cost him a relationship. He had three children with this partner and she has said that is that.

“He has found a new partner and she is pregnant with his child. This is his last chance to be a dad. He is anxious to be an active father.”

Judge Thomas Teague said: “It must have been very frightening for him (the licensee). You ran away and didn’t try to threaten him.

“You have many convictions for robbery and burglary. more recently you have mainly been in trouble for offences for motor vehicles. This is too serious for a community penalty.

“You want to make the most of your opportunity of being a father and that is up to you. Whether you make the most of your life or what is left of it.”

The defendant, who admitted a charge of burglary, was sentenced to two years in custody, minus the 29 days he spent on remand.

Cartwright, who was dressed in tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt, told his partner he loved her before being removed from the court.