Serial criminal who plagued part of York jailed for 'dishonesty spree'
In the space of two and a half hours, Sean James Beard, 33, broke into two garages, stole a treasured mountain bike, twice raided a relative’s works van for tools and tried to get into another vehicle, Victoria Ball, prosecuting, told York Crown Court.
All the targeted buildings and vehicles were in west York, and were partially in an area from which Beard is banned under a criminal behaviour order (CBO). The order also bans him from touching vehicles without the owner’s permission.
His actions disturbed a sleeping couple who now feel unsafe in their own home and have difficulty sleeping at night, York Crown Court heard.
They told the court that prior to the break-in they would have described their neighbourhood as “welcoming and fairly safe”.
But now their peace of mind was gone.
Recorder Patrick Palmer told Beard he had deliberately gone out to commit offences, arming himself with a tool to get into garages and a flashlight.
Beard, of no fixed address, initially denied the offences, but pleaded guilty the day before he was due to stand trial at York Magistrates' Court to burgling a house, burgling a garage, interfering with a vehicle, breaching the CBO, and two thefts from a van.
Magistrates sent his case for sentence to the crown court where he was jailed for 40 months.
Beard has 244 previous convictions, mostly for theft and other dishonesty committed in York.
When he was jailed for eight weeks in September for shop thefts, York Magistrates' Court heard he had been released from prison on August 14 and started stealing from shops the next day.
“On August 23, the defendant started what the Crown would say was a dishonesty spree,” said Ms Ball at York Crown Court.
At 2.08am the couple’s doorbell alerted them to an intruder and checking their CCTV they saw Beard on their driveway getting into their garage, which has a connecting door to the house.
Inside the garage, he tried the door of their vehicle without success and then left.
Fourteen minutes later, Beard broke into a distant relative’s van which was parked in the banned area and stole work tools. At 4.30am, he returned to the van and took more tools. Together the tools were worth £1,069 and although some were later recovered by police, tools worth £579 have yet to be found.
The judge called the tool thefts “mean” offences.
At 3am Beard broke into a second garage, where he stole a £300 mountain bike that its owner used to get around York and had fond memories of because it had originally belonged to his father.
For Beard, Christian Miles said he had mental health problems including hearing voices and hallucinations. It was possible it would be more appropriate to section him under the Mental Health Act rather than jailing him.
Being homeless and sofa surfing, he stole things to sell for money to meet his basic needs.
On his release from prison Beard wants to get a job, said the defence barrister. He was remorseful and regretful for his crimes.
PC Ricci Haslam from North Yorkshire Police said: “Officers previously engaged with Beard to get the CBO issued in order to help him stay away from certain areas to protect local residents and businesses from crime.
“However he has been persistent in his offending and I’m glad to see that he has now been handed a custodial sentence.
“As this case shows we work closely with members of the public, businesses and partners in our communities to pursue those who commit such crimes.”
