Four spared jail over pub burglary

Four teenagers who ransacked an empty West Bromwich pub, walking away with a plasma TV wrapped in a curtain and pool balls, ashtrays and darts stuffed in their pockets, have escaped being jailed.

The gang was caught just yards from the New Hop Pole pub with thousands of pounds worth of goods. Police stopped them at 1.15am on February 26.

Jatinder Singh and Parupkar Kainth, both 18 and both of Carter's Green, West Bromwich, Kyle Beckford, 19, of The Close, Lower Gornal, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named, admitted burglary at Warley Magistrates Court yesterday.

Singh admitted a further charge of breeching a previous community order.

Sarah Cooper, prosecuting, said the four, who are all unemployed, struck at the High Street pub just 11 days after it had shut down. Other raiders had already stripped the pub of its boiler and copper piping. Mrs Cooper said they were caught after CCTV operators monitoring the town centre saw them acting suspiciously and called police.

Miss Irram Pegg, for Singh and Kainth, said the crime had been opportunistic.

Beckford and Kainth were ordered to do 80 hours unpaid work and pay £85 costs, Singh was placed on a two-month curfew, ordered to complete a 12-month supervision requirement, and told to pay £85 costs. The 17-year-old was placed on a referral order.