A bungling criminal was caught by police after he tried to sell power tools at the house in York they had been stolen from hours earlier.

At 3am on November 15 last year, burglars broke into a Tang Hall house that was being renovated, said Louise Pryke, prosecuting.

They took power tools worth £3,130 and caused £1,500 damage to a patio door.

Later that day, Callum Louis Ellerby, who lives nearby, went to one of the contractors at the house and offered the stolen tools for sale. Police were called and though he ran away he was arrested at his home.

He was on an 18-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months imposed two days earlier for five shop thefts, two community orders for other shop thefts and criminal damage and on bail for burgling the Fragrance Shop in Parliament Street, York.

Ms Pryke told York Crown Court that Ellerby had broken into the shop at night on October 10, smashing glass panes in the door to get in. 

He had ransacked the place, pulling out numerous boxes from shelves behind the counter and making off with perfumes and fragrances worth £2,161.

“I don’t think you have the application or the ability to stay on the right side of the law,” Judge Simon Hickey told him.

“The proper punishment can only be one of immediate custody. You are clearly a risk to the general public and you have a dreadful record of complying with court orders.”

Ellerby was jailed for 18 months including four months of the suspended sentence. He has been remanded in custody since his arrest following his attempt to sell the power tools.

Ellerby, 25, of Rawdon Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to burgling the shop and handling the tools stolen in the house burglary. He denied carrying out the house burglary and the prosecution accepted that when he pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods.

For him, Lily Wildman said: “He knows he cannot go on offending in this way.”

Since being remanded, he had had time to think about what he was doing.

At the time he was offending his relationship with his long-term partner had broken down.

Ms Pryke said the fragrances stolen in the shop raid had not been recovered by the police, though the power tools stolen in the house raid had been recovered.

Ellerby had clearly acquired the tools with the intention of selling them, the court heard.

On October 27, he had been given a community order for shop thefts and criminal damage.

On November 9, he was given another community order for two more shop thefts and on November 13, he was given the suspended prison sentence for five thefts when he had repeatedly gone into Co-op stores in Hull Road and Tang Hall, stealing alcohol worth in total £733.