Louth burglar caught out - thanks to Facebook!

Adam Palmer, 35, of Eastfield Court off Eastfield Road, stole a chainsaw from a house under renovation in St Bernard’s Avenue, Louth, after entering in the early hours of the morning.

Edna Leonard, prosecuting, said the property owner discovered that the £280 saw was missing and decided to search on the Internet to try to find where it had gone.

“He checked on a selling page on Facebook.

“He found that the defendant had put the chainsaw on the page for £90. That information was passed onto the police.”

Later the same morning Palmer broke into another property in the same street and took a wallet and bank cards while the occupant was asleep upstairs.

The woman was woken when her cat, which had been shut in her kitchen for the night, jumped on her.

She went downstairs to investigate and discovered she had been burgled.

Miss Leonard said that police officers, acting on information about the first burglary, went to Palmer’s home and saw the stolen chainsaw through the letterbox. A search of the house was carried out and the stolen items were found.

Palmer admitted two charges of burglary both committed in the early hours of May 2 this year.

He was given a 16 month jail sentence suspended for two years with 150 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 15 days.

Judge Simon Hirst, passing sentence, told Palmer he had only avoided an immediate jail sentence because he had no previous convictions and had admitted the offences at the earliest opportunity.

The judge told Palmer “This is your chance in life. There will not be a second chance.”

Palmer, who represented himself at the hearing, said he did not know why he carried out the burglaries.

He told the court “I admit everything I have done. I just don’t know why I did it.

“I just went crazy for a little bit. I lost the plot. It was desperation I guess.”

He said he has recently lost his job and has been diagnosed with depression for which he is receiving treatment.