Leeds judge warned cocaine-addicted burglar he came close to jail

Leeds Crown Court heard that Dylan Dobson had a drug addiction that cost him thousands of pounds a week.

The 21-year-old had noticed a conservatory window had been left ajar at a property on Ringwood Way, Hemsworth, on the night of February 2.

The next day the occupant found the window wide open, the blinds on the floor and a nearby drawer left open, with £200 missing.

The police found Dobson’s fingerprints at the house and quickly arrested him but he gave no comments during his interview, prosecutor Lydia Carroll said.

Later admitting a charge of burglary, he has six convictions for 10 offences including theft, shoplifting, criminal damage and assaulting an emergency worker.

Mitigating, Erin Kitson-Parker said that Dobson has since sought help for his long-standing cocaine addiction, was making progress and has “started to turn his life around”.

she added: “At the the time of the offence he between bouts of homelessness.

"He was taking drugs and got into a bad place.

"He is now living in supported housing, is engaging and doing voluntary work.

"It appears he is doing all the right things. He displays as someone who does want to change.”

Judge Simon Phillips KC told Dobson: “You are on a knife edge whether you go to custody.

"You still have a great deal of maturing to achieve and I consider it appropriate to give the opportunity to prove to yourself and others that you are capable of being offence-free.”

He gave him a 12-month sentence, suspended for 24 months, a three-month electronic tag curfew, a six-month drug rehabilitation order and told to pay £200 compensation.

But Judge Phillips told him: “It’s up to you, you have the support network in place.

"If you fail to take the opportunity afforded you today, I’m telling you that the expectation is you will come back before me and that prison sentence will be activated.

"I do not want to see you again.

"If we meet again you know what the outcome will be.”