Homeless Andrew Morris, 46, broke into a city centre bar to find a place to sleep and raided shops to get alcohol or items to sell to raise money for alcohol, his solicitor Graham Parkins said.
He couldn’t get accommodation because of his drinking and he drank to deal with the consequences of being homeless.
York Magistrates Court heard that the crime spree began in York city centre in January, moved to Scarborough in April and returned to York in June.
Morris, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to burgling the Blue Heavens bar and grill in Coney Street on January 9; stealing cosmetics worth £33.95 from Boots in Westborough, Scarborough, and cosmetics worth £27.96 from TK Maxx in the same street, both on April 25; theft of a bottle of wine worth £4.95 from Sainsbury’s in Davygate, York, on July 4; and using threatening words or behaviour in Stonegate, York, on June 4. He also admitted failure to attend court for an earlier hearing.
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York and North Yorkshire’s mayor has said he is ‘determined’ to get a half-hourly train between Scarborough and York.
