Burglar returned to jail after stealing empty cash register from Wakefield pub

Leeds Magistrates Court yesterday heard that William Hall used a shovel to smash a window pane in the door of the Walnut Tree in Barnsley Road, Wakefield, causing £300 worth of damage to the till and the premises on April 6 this year.

Prosecutor Alison Head told the court the blood of Hall, 36, of Earl Street, Wakefield, was forensically linked to the register after he left it in a garden neighbouring the pub. She told the court that the defendant has 62 previous convictions for theft or similar offences.

Julie Allott, mitigating, said that Hall has in the past struggled with heroin dependency and more recently with alcohol. The defendant “committed this offence while intoxicated,” she said.

She asked that Hall, who had not been receiving his benefits and lives in temporary accommodation, be given credit for pleading guilty to the offence.

Magistrate Margot Conyers returned him to prison for 12 weeks and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £115.