Kirkby burglar jailed for his 12th offence after crashing in stolen car

Steven Walker and another man broke into the house while the occupants slept, in the early hours of January 6, last year, said prosecutor Gurdial Singh.

They were spotted in the stolen car by police officers at 3.15am, and chased as they sped down "narrow streets" and "bounced over a speed bump."

Driver Kieran Bonser damaged two cars before crashing into a Renault Clio, and Walker fled, throwing a stolen bottle of whisky over a wall, but was caught nearby.

The court heard Walker has 17 previous convictions for 43 offences, including 11 burglaries. The first dates back to 1999, when he received three months in a Young Offenders Institute, and he has since been sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison.

Digby Johnson, mitigating, said: "Between 1999 and 2013 Mr Walker had lived beyond the law. On the face of it there was every prospect of that continuing."

But he said Walker began a relationship following his release from his last sentence, having "smartened himself up" and gained qualifications while in custody.

He worked in various jobs before the “pressures of lockdown, and his inability to earn,” "unpicked" the relationship and he found himself sofa-surfing.

Mr Johnson said Walker was housed in a local Travelodge when he met up “with a group of people who had been in trouble in all sorts of different ways,” and the “suggestion had come around that they would take a car”.

He said Walker has waited for ten and a half months to be sentenced and received a “positive report” while in custody.

Walker, 39, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to burglary and aggravated taking without the owner's consent, at the earliest opportunity.

On Thursday, Judge Julia Warburton told him: “It is very much a traumatic event for anyone to feel unsafe in their own home.

“It is sad to see you here today after you managed to sustain yourself.”

Walker was jailed for 876 days and was banned from driving for two years after his release.

His co-defendant, Kieron Bonser, 25, of Marlborough Road, Kirkby, was sentenced at an earlier hearing.

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