Barrowford 'crime wave' jailed after targeting pensioners (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Barrowford 'crime wave' jailed after targeting pensioners

11:00am Friday 23rd December 2011 in Barrowford By Wendy Barlow, Court reporter

A 'ONE man crime wave' who targeted the residents of Barrowford in one night, has been jailed for 22 months.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Carl Moore, 23, burgled the home of two pensioners and a summer house with a teenage accomplice.

But, he then carried on stealing on his own, targeting eight garages to steal bikes and stealing from a car.

Police found stolen cycles, some of them high value and probably Christmas or birthday presents, all over the village.

Moore had thrown one bike in the canal, prompting a judge to slam his actions as 'nasty, mean and despicable'.

Moore, who had only finished a night-time curfew about two weeks before, was joined in raiding and ransacking the house by skunk cannabis addict, Stephen Crawford, 19, who was just two months out of jail.

The pair helped themselves to keys, a digital camera and a mobile phone, before smashing a window at a summer house and taking two expensive bikes.

Moore, of Dover Street, Nelson, and Crawford, of Heath Street, Burnley, both admitted two counts of burglary on August 15. Moore asked for nine offences, eight of them garage burglaries, to be considered. Crawford was sent to detention for 17 months.

Sarah Statham, prosecuting, said police received reports of two males in Barrowford and when they arrived at 5am, the two burglaries had been committed.

Officers found the defendants pushing bikes and with the haul taken from the house.

Bob Elias, defending Moore, said he quite clearly had issues and needed help. He was naive, gullible and easily led.

James Heyworth, for Crawford, said he was capable of offence-free periods but knew only a sentence of imprisonment could be passed.

Sentencing, Judge Beverley Lunt told the pair burglary was a devastating crime and should never be underestimated. She told Moore: "You were a one man crime wave that night and you must be stopped."