A BURGLAR who raided a Muslim education centre has been spared jail.

Daniel Andronache, 20, was one of three men who climbed scaffolding and broke into the centre in Willow Street, Blackburn, on February 8 last year, and stole £8,000 cash and 12 mobile phones which had been confiscated from pupils.

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Preston Crown Court heard the men accessed the building through an open first-floor window, while repairs took place.

Romanian Andronache, of Holly Street, Blackburn, admitted the burglary but said he did not know the other two men, who have never been caught.

He said he had only taken £370 in coins from a charity jar and did not know what had happened to the rest of the cash, which had been collected through fundraising activities at the centre.

Recorder Guy Mathieson, sentencing, said: “You have been in this country for two years.

“You are still a young man at 20 with your partner expecting your first child.

“In your time in this country you have been working with members of your family and this is your only conviction. It is a serious conviction.

“I don’t believe for a moment that you do not know who these other two men are. It is a ridiculous suggestion that two complete strangers approached you.

“You knew when you were approached by these people exactly what was intended and you were willing, indeed happy, to participate in it.

Andronache was caught out when his fingerprints were found on a cash jar which had been stored in a filing cabinet at the centre.

Recorder Mathieson handed Andronache a 12-month sentence suspended for two years and ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.

He said: “It seems you make ends meet by doing work here and there and that this was simply another form of work to you, albeit in this case criminal.”