Jailed: Dudley man, 20, took part in supermarket burglary 'to help repay debt'
A cash-strapped 20-year-old Dudley man has paid a high price for trying to settle a debt by raiding a supermarket.
Jordan Whitehouse was locked up for 15 months by a judge who advised him to get a job to pay bills in future.
Whitehouse, of Cox Road, Coseley, was among three hooded crooks who broke into the Tesco Express branch in Hamstead Road, Hamstead, Birmingham, late at night on November 2.
The gang, who were wearing balaclavas, arrived on motorbikes, armed with a sledgehammer that was used to smash a large hole in the closed shop’s front window, said Miss Blondelle Thompson, prosecuting.
The bungling burglars triggered the alarm system while trying to prise open the shutters that protected the store’s cigarettes. The raiders set off the siren and a cloud of blue dye, forcing them to climb out of the supermarket and flee empty-handed.
They left a tell-tale spot of blood by the tills which forensic examination disclosed a match with Whitehouse's DNA.
Months earlier he had been given a suspended sentence after being caught red-handed attempting to break in to a house in Chapel Street, Tipton, on April 4.
Miss Kamalpreet Shergill, defending, told the court: “He owed a debt to a friend whose bike he had damaged and was trying to get goods from the supermarket to sell for the required money.
“He does not have issues with drugs or alcohol. He just got in with the wrong crowd.”
Whitehouse pleaded guilty to burglary and breaking the terms of his suspended sentence. Recorder Ms Abigail Nixon ordered him to be detained and urged him to get a job in future.
She told him: "You had never been in trouble until you started mixing with negative influences. You are old enough to work. Other people get a job to pay back a debt. They do not turn to crime."
