A SALON owner has blasted the sentence of a burglar who stole cash from his business, deeming it not enough to deter the criminal from doing it again.

Eric Brotherton’s salon, Triangles Hair and Beauty in Blackburn, had a brick thrown through one of its windows by Scott McKay, who pleaded guilty to burglary, Blackburn magistrates heard.

The court heard McKay, 42, broke into the salon on the day he was released from prison, on Wednesday, June 19.

Two days later McKay rang the police and confessed to his crime.

Parveen Akhtar, prosecuting, said the defendant cut himself in the process of removing the glass before taking cash from the till and two boxes of hair products from the business in Redlam.

The court heard when McKay was interviewed, he said he had come out of prison and was homeless again. He knew he would get caught.

“He says they have been targeted numerous times and their insurance if going up and up and up,” said Miss Akhtar.

“The window had to be boarded up and stock replaced and incidents like this cause a great deal of inconvenience.”

She said McKay had 121 convictions for 275 previous offences many of them for theft.

He had already been jailed three times this year for eight weeks in February, four weeks in March and 10 weeks in May.

He was jailed for 18 weeks and ordered to pay £115 victim surcharge on his release.

Waseem Chowdhary, defending, said McKay was caught in a downward spiral and found it difficult to cope when he was released from prison.

He said: “He finds himself back in the same old routing and ends up stealing to fund his alcohol addiction.”

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Brotherton, who has run the business for 30 years with wife Sarah, said the prison sentence will not help anyone.

He said: “It does not look good for my business, I’ve got a smashed window and a damaged front.

“We get people coming in saying ‘did you give someone a bad hair cut?'. It looks bad and it impacts on my members of staff. It damages everyone’s enthusiasm for doing the job.

“The sentence will not stop him doing it again.

“It’s no help for us and it's no help for him.

“That was one of the reasons why he did it, he has nowhere to go.”

He added: “It’s bad for us, it’s bad for everyday people and its bad for the police.

“They are trying to do their work and they are putting these people in the court’s hands, then they are given 18 weeks in prison.

“What justice is done?

“If it keeps happening, as a business owner, what do you do?

“If I close then it is letting these thieves win and I am not prepared to do that.”