A burglar who stole sit-on lawnmowers from a Cumbria farm and a County Durham address has avoided jail because he looks after five kids and 18 horses.
Anthony Price breached a suspended sentence order when he travelled to a farm in Alston with two accomplices and stole a lawnmower and a pressure washer from an outbuilding. A month earlier, Price had also stolen a sit-on lawnmower from an address in Ushaw Moor. But despite breaching the suspended sentence he received in 2020 for violently attacking his then-partner, the 47-year-old avoided being sent to jail because Durham Crown Court heard it would be "unjust" to do so.
Price, of Fountain Square, St Helen Auckland, Bishop Auckland, appeared at the court on Wednesday to be sentenced for taking a conveyance without consent and non-dwelling burglary. He had pleaded guilty to the charges at a previous hearing.
