School thief’s long detention

David Michael Evans, 24, twice raided Scarcroft Green Nursery, in York, and also targeted the Mount School and Dringhouses Primary School in nine days of night-time crime, said prosecutor Rob Galley. He was on parole from a jail sentence for school burglaries in Teesside.

The Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, sent him back to jail for another lesson on how to behave. The Home Office had already ordered him to finish off the previous sentence.

Evans, no fixed address, will start his 27-month York sentence when he finishes the earlier sentence. He admitted all four burglaries.

"It is very inconvenient for schools to be burgled in this way and to be disrupted. I say nothing about the loss you have caused them," the judge said.

"You don't seem to be very good at it. You seem to leave your blood and other evidence behind you."

Mr Galley said Evans:

* Broke into Dringhouses Primary School on the night of December 1 and stole an MP3 player and cash and caused £1,000 damage. He rummaged through cupboards.

* At about 4am on December 7, he broke into Scarcroft Green Nursery by smashing a glass door panel, again made a search, and got away with £178 in cash, £800 in cheques and £20 in vouchers.

* The nursery boarded up the door, but between December 9 and December 12, he got back in through the door by its other glass panel.

* In-between the two nursery raids, he burgled the Mount School very early on December 9 and rummaged through several rooms including the sports hall. He found school keys and used them to access some rooms before getting away with a cash box with £378 inside. Police later found the box in his bedroom.

Police traced him from DNA left at each crime scene.

Helen Hendry, Evans' barrister, said he had a long standing heroin habit. On his release from jail last September, he had tried to keep off the drug, but he had been living with other heroin users and had slipped back into his own habits.