Man stole sack of potatoes 'to fund painkillers for sciatica'

A serial burglar who broke into the homes of two women was caught making off with a sack of potatoes. Adrian Awry stole the spuds in a raid at one house burglary, carried them to a second house and then was caught by police trespassing at a third property. He claimed he committed the burglaries to fund painkillers for his sciatica. Awry broke into the home of a 71-year-old grandmother in west Hull, while her grandson was upstairs showing her how to use her new computer. The woman had heard a door banging, but thought it was a neighbour.

When the pair went downstairs, she realised her grandson's rucksack had been stolen, along with a sack of potatoes from her kitchen. After the burglary, Awry then raided the home of another grandmother who was caring for her baby granddaughter. The woman was sitting watching TV in her home, also in west Hull, when she saw Awry standing in her kitchen. Prosecutor Mark Kendall told Hull Crown Court: "She was sitting on her settee when she observed movement out of the corner of her eye and saw the defendant in her kitchen. She swore at him and told him to get out. He then asked her for directions to Spring Bank."



When he was in her home, Awry was still carrying the rucksack and the sack of potatoes from the other burglary an hour before. A short time later, Awry was spotted by a member of the public acting suspiciously near Spring Bank, where he was trying garden gates to see if they would open. When the passer-by saw some police officers, he told them and they found Awry climbing over a garden gate. He denied he had committed the offences but when the police invited him to take part in an identification parade, Awry said: "There's no point. I'm going to prison anyway." Awry was on licence at the time after being released early from a three-year prison sentence for burglary last November.

His solicitor, Paul Norton, said: "The most powerful piece of mitigation I can put forward is his guilty plea at the first opportunity. He is realistic and recognises a substantial term of imprisonment is inevitable. He is aware he has wasted the greater part of his adult life behind bars. On his release things were looking well but unfortunately he suffers from intermittent sciatica. It flared up and his GP would not prescribe him painkillers, so he resorted to buying drugs on the street and went out committing burglaries to get more money to buy further painkillers." Awry, of Spring Bank West, west Hull, pleaded guilty to two burglaries. Judge Simon Jack jailed him for four years.