A burglar who stole valuable antiques from his dead grandfather’s home has been jailed for failing to work with the probation service to sort out a drink problem.
Sean Williams received a suspended sentence for the break-in at Liverton but failed to comply with the terms of the order and repeatedly missed appointments with probation.
He only attended two out of 25 days probation and did not attend meetings with addiction workers. He also failed to go to court when they summonsed him for breaching the order.
The original sentence was passed last year after he admitted raiding his dead grandfather’s house and taking items he thought he should have been left in his will.
He had been on a pub crawl in Newton Abbot and Liverton before going to the bungalow with friend Andrew Buckley, who broke in through a window.
They took a brass lamp and a Capo di Monte statuette and helped themselves to port and sherry. The antiques were worth £3,300 but Williams sold them for just £190 at a bric-a-brac shop in Torbay.
Williams, aged 47, of Paignton, who admitted burglary at the first hearing last year, was jailed for a year by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.
He told him: ‘The purpose of the 25 rehabilitation activity days was to deal with an underlying problems, particularly a drink problem. You have admitting failing to attend appointments in March, May, July and August and failing to contact Walnut Lodge.
‘I am told you attended only two out of 25 days and here we are 13 months later. I do not consider it unjust to activate the suspended sentence.
‘I am told you have been drinking regularly throughout the suspended sentence. That was the precise problem which was meant to have been addressed.
Mr Nigel Wraith, prosecuting, said Williams failed to attend a series of meetings and went missing when summonsed to court.
Miss Bathsheba Cassel, defending, said Williams is the carer for his mother and was reluctant to give himself up until he had made other arrangements for her.
She said the dispute over the will, which gave rise to the original offence, has now been resolved.