A Newton Aycliffe man has been spared jail after admitting he and a female escort burgled one of her customers.
As reported in today’s Northern Echo, the victim had £4,000-worth of property stolen after the call girl stole his house keys and returned with a burglar while he was out.
Career criminal Craig Routledge, from Aycliffe, drove Amanda Martin to the client’s home in Yarm, near Stockton, in May last year.
The pair helped themselves to a laptop computer, camera, binoculars, a gold chain and a number of rings – some belonging to the victim’s late mother.
They were both handed suspended prison sentences at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.
Police arrested Martin and Routledge after they had been to pawnbrokers and a photographic shop to sell the haul, the court heard.
Judge Peter Fox told 29-year-old Martin, from Stockton, and Routledge, 37, they were being spared immediate custody because Routledge received a glowing reference from a homeless charity worker.
Brian McAnaney, a housing support officer for Rock Solid, told the court how the former heroin addict had dramatically turned around his life.
He told Judge Fox Routledge was now a volunteer for the charity, was in a settled relationship and had re-established links with his son and father.
Andrew Teate, for Martin, said she had originally gone to get some belongings for the homeowner, but did not realise until later what Routledge was up to.
He told the court the divorcee was on a drug reduction programme and said: “There has been a great effect on her following her criminality.”
Sue Jacobs, prosecuting, told the court the victim had been a regular client of Martin’s after meeting her through the Dollybirds agency in 2008. She was aware her punter would not be at home at certain times because he looked after his ill father.
Martin received a six-month sentence and Routledge was given a 12-month term, both suspended for two years, after they admitted burglary and fraud.
Judge Fox also ordered them each to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work for the community, and imposed a drug rehabilitation requirement on Routledge.
The court heard that the escort had no previous convictions, while Routledge has 175 offences on his record, including a number for burglary and theft.
Judge Fox told the pair: “I can tell you straight away both of you have two people to thank today – the same two people, Mr McAnaney and defence barrister Anthony Moore.
“Between them, they have persuaded me that you, Routledge, should not go immediately to prison and it follows, in fairness, that you, Martin, should not.”