Burglar with '˜daft' excuse is jailed

Anthony Storr turned up at a house on bikes with two others – but claimed he was acting alone.

The 27-year-old was jailed on Monday at Portsmouth Crown Court.

Judge Roger Hetherington said it was a ‘daft proposition’ for Storr to suggest he was acting on his own.

Clothing, jewellery and a push bike were stolen from the house at night in Jessie Road, Southsea, on August 20.

The court heard clothing had been left around the bedrooms in untidy searches and that the family were left upset at the burglary.

Sentencing, the judge said: ‘I quite accept that no doubt the reason you committed this offence was because you had no job, you had nowhere to live and had only recently been released, it seems, from prison and had very little stability in your life.

‘But nevertheless that’s no excuse whatever.’

Storr, of HMP Winchester, will serve half the sentence before he is released on licence.

He admitted burglary.

Robert Harding, for Storr, said the crime was done on ‘impulse committed out of desperation’ and not planned.

The judge said Storr’s remorse had come at a ‘rather later stage’ but conceded the defendant had an unwell mother and would have a difficult time in prison.