Ageing Leeds burglar is jailed and admits: 'I'm too old for this'

Mark Baber said that he was “off his tree” on prescription drugs when he tried to burgle the house on Burlington Road in the Hunslet Carr area.

The 59-year-old, who has a long record for break-ins, was spotted by neighbours as he first tried to get into the property through the cellar doors on the evening of August 12, 2021.

Luckily, he was not able to get into the house and the occupant was not home at the time.

He then picked up a flower pot from the garden and tried to carry it away from the property.

The police had already been called at that point while another neighbour filmed him on their mobile phone.

He was handcuffed, led away and later tested positive for cocaine, prosecutor Zareen Alam-Cheetham said.

A prepared statement was read out during his police interview but he declined to comment on any further questions.

Baber, of Colywn Terrace, Beeston, denied the offence of attempted burglary during a trial at Leeds Magistrates’ Court, and the case was sent to Leeds Crown Court for sentencing.

He was also in breach of a suspended sentence for which he received 18 months, suspended for two years, after previously being convicted of attempting to burgle a dwelling.

Mitigating, John Batchelor said that Baber had a long-standing heroin addiction, and was on a methadone prescription.

Mr Batchelor added: “He was, as he put it, off his tree, on prescription tablets.

"He is an articulate man, and in his own words that he told me, he is too old for this.”

The court was told that he has multiple convictions for burglaries of dwellings and non dwellings, including various stretches in jail.

Judge Geoffrey Marson KC activated 12 months of his existing suspended sentence, and gave him another 12 months to run consecutively for the latest offence.

He said: “You have not expressed a shred of remorse for this.

"You did not know he was vulnerable and fortunately, he was not home.”