A BURGLAR was branded "useless" by his own lawyer after he was caught stealing two televisions and a laptop computer while on a caravanning holiday.
Simon Tatum, 35, broke into his neighbour's caravan at a holiday park in Barmston, East Yorkshire and took the electrical items before stashing them under his bed in his own mobile home.
A young girl spotted Tatum creeping into his neighbour's caravan and the police were called.
Defending Tatum, Patrick Palmer said: "The police came and looked in the caravan and they saw a TV under the bed. It wasn't even hidden.
"He is useless at it. He went into the caravan, there were people watching and he took the stuff. It was wholly incompetent. I cannot work it out, frankly."
Hull Crown Court heard the neighbour and his wife spend most weekends at the caravan park.
Prosecutor Jhana Jobes said a window of their caravan had been removed completely by Tatum so he could climb inside.
In a statement, the victim of the theft told how he and his wife had been affected by the crime.
The man said: "My wife feels sick every time she hears a noise, thinking it is going to happen again."
Tatum, from Bradford, has a string of previous offences for burglary dating back to 1995, with his last offence for a none-dwelling burglary in 2010, for which he served nine months in prison.
Mr Palmer said he had kicked his heroin addiction but turned to alcohol at times of depression.
Sentencing him to a community order, probation activity order and a six-month curfew, Judge Jeremy Richardson said: "Given your past, it is astonishing you carried out this burglary in such an incompetent way.
"It is tempting to send you straight to prison. The public interest would be well served by steering you away from crime permanently. You must be punished and this order will be your punishment."
