Northampton burglar jailed for 18 weeks after attempting to open garage door just days after getting out of prison

Offender, 45, was still on suspended sentence following break-in last March
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Magistrates jailed a 45-year-old Northampton man for attempted burglary after he attempted to open a garage door just days after being freed from prison on licence.

Paul Michael Philip Harris was sentenced to 18 weeks after a court was told he tried to open the door to a garage in Galileo Close in the early hours of January 14.

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Harris, whose address was shown on court documents as Limehurst Square, Duston, was sentenced to six weeks for threatening behaviour on December 20, and given a 12-week jail term suspended for a year after being convicted of breaking into a dental practice during March 2021.

Magistrates jailed Harris for 18 weeks for attempted burglaryMagistrates jailed Harris for 18 weeks for attempted burglary
Magistrates jailed Harris for 18 weeks for attempted burglary

Following the sentencing on Thursday (February 10), lead investigator PC Chris Perkins from the Northamptonshire Police Burglary Team, said: “I hope this case demonstrates just how seriously we take burglary in this county as it shows that you merely have to just try and burgle in order to be sent to prison.

“Paul Harris will now spend the next couple of months looking at the four walls of a prison cell and I hope he uses this short stretch to reflect on his poor choices in order to make better ones when he comes out.”

The majority of prison sentences handed down by courts in England and Wales require a portion of time spent behind bars — usually half — with the rest served on licence in the community.

Licences require offenders to abide by rules which could include bans from certain areas, or substance rehabilitation. If the conditions are broken, offenders can be sent back to jail.