Drug-addict burglar’s 
prolific crime spree

Fork lift truck driver Craig Kemp lost his job and his home through rent arrears and he and his partner voluntarily gave up custody of their child within a short space of time.

Hit by problems with his claim for Jobseekers’ Allowance, 28-year-old Kemp had no income and reverted to his previous criminal life to make ends meet.

He burgled shops, garages, cars, sheds and commercial premises and stole computers, mountain bikes and property worth £10,000 in a three-month crime spree in the Barnsley area last summer.

When he appeared at Sheffield Crown Court for sentence he admitted stealing two mountain bikes, burgling the Digital Media Centre and a computer stall in the town’s market and asked for 47 offences of burglary and theft to be considered.

Ian West, for Kemp, said his client had gone off the rails after being given a chance by a judge at the court in October 2011 when he was given a suspended 12-month jail term for attempted burglary.

Megan Rhys, prosecuting, said Kemp was seen brazenly riding a man’s bike he had stolen by its owner. When he challenged him. Kemp replied that he had bought it from a “smackhead”.

Jailing Kemp, of no fixed address, for a total of 20 months, Judge Robert Moore told him: “Redundancy and drugs caused you to relapse which was fairly spectacular in terms of the number of offences you committed within the space of three or four months.”