(Image: The Northern Echo)
A Darlington burglar who risked arrest by turning up late for court left the building with his liberty intact having avoided jail with a suspended sentence.
Anthony Price was due at Teesside Crown Court on Friday (September 25), for sentence after admitting burglary and taking a vehicle without consent at a recent magistrates’ court hearing.
The burglary was at a property in Pensbury Street, in the Bank Top area, near Darlington Railway Station, on Wednesday, August 26.
Price took the keys to an MG 5 car, which was driven away from outside the address.
Defendant Anthony Price risked arrest on bench warrant after turning up late for his sentencing hearing at Teesside Crown Court on Friday (September 25)
When 47-year-old Price failed to appear at court at the listed time, his counsel, Stephen Constantine, could give no explanation.
Recorder Paul Reid said he would issue a warrant for Price’s arrest without bail in the absence of a satisfactory explanation.
But, half-an-hour later Price arrived at the Middlesbrough court building.
Mr Constantine told the court that his client apologised and explained that he had missed his bus.
Recorder Reid accepted the apology and withdrew the arrest warrant.
Mr Constantine said Price’s previous burglary convictions mainly involved commercial rather than domestic premises.
Recorder Reid handed Price a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.
But he warned the defendant that any further offending in the next two years would almost certainly trigger the sentence, on top of any punishment for the new offence.