An Oldham teenager has avoided jail despite breaking into seven homes and stealing items, including a number of cars.
At Minshull Street Crown Court on Thursday (September 21), Lewis Bailey appeared having previously pleaded guilty to seven offences of burglary.
The court heard from prosecutor William Donnelly who said the 19-year-old entered an address on Livingstone Street, Lees, during the night on July 31 last year while the family who lived in the home slept upstairs.
The next morning, the father in the household woke up and could not find his wallet before setting off to work, eventually being contacted by police, who told him they had found it.
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The man's wife awoke to find her car keys and car missing from outside, while £600 was also taken.
Fingerprints were taken at the point of Bailey's entry.
On September 5, Bailey, who was 18 at the time, entered a house on Wright Street, Failsworth, entering through the back gate to the garden and then into the house.
When one of the woman who lived in the house woke up in the morning, she noticed some tobacco was missing and the door was open, with her car having been stolen.
The car was recovered the following day and a cigarette was found which was submitted for forensic analysis.
Both the fingerprints at the first house and the cigarette provided a forensic hit and Bailey was identified as the culprit and arrested.
Bailey went on to admit to police he had committed five further burglary offences, some where cars had been stolen, and pleaded guilty to all the offences.
David Morton, defending, told the court that Bailey had endured a "tumultuous young life" but was now doing voluntary work and had moved away from alcohol and drugs.
Recorder Edmund Fowler decided not to send Bailey to prison, instead giving him a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.
He also ordered Bailey, of Glaisdale, Oldham, to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and to attend 25 days of rehabilitation activity requirement.
Addressing Bailey before he left the court, Recorder Fowler told him: "You can count yourself lucky today."
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