A burglar caught piling up laptops with his partner in crime said they had broken into St Helens’ tallest building to see the Christmas lights across the town.
Steven Etchells and Luke Swift were found carrying state of the art Dyson fans down an NHS corridor in the old Pilkington site on Christmas Eve.
They were then hit with incapacitant spray after refusing to stop adding to their haul of stolen goods despite the requests of a police officer.
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Etchells and Swift broke into the old Pilkington site on Alexandra Park in the early hours of December 24.
The bungling burglars had climbed onto a flat roof before smashing through a window to enter the office block, four floors of which are rented by the NHS.
Susan Payne, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court they then broke through internal doors to search offices.
Both under the influence of drugs, they filled their pockets with perfume bottles stolen from desks and piled up laptops, mobile phones and air cooling systems ready for their escape.
Fourteen NHS laptops were among the items they placed at the end of each corridor while rooting through the different floors.
Just after 5am a security guard reported a possible burglary at the site and police officers arrived - with one stumbling across the pair on a corridor as they hauled Dyson air coolers.
They ignored her order to stop and approached her - leading her to use incapacitant spray to stop them.
They were arrested and interviewed by police.
Ms Payne said Etchells told officers the building was the tallest in St Helens, he thought it was derelict and: “They were going to go onto the roof to look at the Christmas lights over St Helens.”
Ms Payne said Swift told officers “they had entered the building with the intention of taking anything they could get their hands on as they are both drug users”.
Both men were charged with - and admitted - burglary.
Ms Payne said Etchells also appeared in court today to be sentenced for driving offences after he took his partner’s white Peugeot car when she was walking the dog on the night of September 6, 2020.
He crashed it into a bus stop on Elephant Lane in Thatto Heath then became abusive to witnesses who tried to help him start the car.
After abandoning it in a car park he was spotted “staggering” down the middle of the road towards the Elephant Pub, where police later found him.
He said he had no recollection of crashing the car - or of taking drugs, after a blood test revealed he had an illicit substance in his system.
He eventually admitted taking his partner’s vehicle without consent, drug driving, driving without insurance and driving whilst disqualified. The court heard he had also breached a suspended sentence.
The court heard Etchells, 50 and of Ellison Drive in St Helens, had 41 previous convictions for 101 offences including 49 thefts.
Swift, 29 and also of Ellison Drive, had 12 previous convictions for 17 offences.
Paul Becker, defending Etchells, said: “I know that he is sorry for what he has done because he has told me he is sorry for what he has done. He is ashamed a man of his age is still committing offences like this. He wants to turn his life around.”
Rachel Oakdene, defending Swift, said the dad-of-two’s guilty pleas to burglary - and a separate offence of possession of a Class A drug after a small quantity of heroin was found at his home - showed his “remorse and contrition” and that he now wanted to put his offending behind him.
She added: “He said he was, at the time, using anything he could get his hands on.”
Judge Gary Woodhall accepted the defendants had no intention to target the NHS specifically but said the offences, combined with other factors including their previous convictions, were so serious that both had to be jailed.
Etchells was sentenced to 94 weeks in prison and disqualified from driving for 151 weeks.
Swift was sentenced to 10 months in jail.
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