A crack addict burgled his cousin’s flat to buy drugs then tried to bribe him with £500 to drop the charges.
Michael Porter, 30, of Masseyfield Road, Brookvale, Runcorn, was described as a "walking advert for the Just Say No" anti-drugs campaign by his defence counsel as he faced justice at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday for crimes committed last summer. Nardeen Nemat, prosecuting, said Porter let himself inside the flat on Camelot Way with a key that his victim Bradley Gibson had left for his mother after he’d headed to Leeds Festival on August 26 last year.
Once inside, Porter “ransacked” the premises and made off with goods worth around £3,645 including designer clothes, a fridge freezer, a PlayStation, three televisions, a gaming chair, and ear pods. Ms Nemat said Mr Gibson first learned something was amiss when he received a text at 1.45am on August 29 from a neighbour who asked: “Are you in? I can hear loads of banging, it sounds dodgy.”
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Mr Gibson rang his brother Louis who went round and called back 15 minutes later to say he had found Porter inside and the lights and a TV were on.
Louis rang again at about noon on August 30 and said he had been back and found the flat had been “ransacked”, lots of items were missing, and there had been a fire in the kitchen resulting in a frying pan being left outside.
On his return from Leeds, Mr Gibson went to his cousin’s home and tried to contact him, and managed to retrieve a few things via another relative who had spoken to Porter.
It was later established that Porter had sold a 40-inch TV stolen from the flat for £30 at a Runcorn branch of Cash Generator on August 28, signing for the sale in his own name.
On September 30, Mr Gibson’s phone rang, and the caller ID displayed his aunty’s name - Porter’s mother.
He answered and it was Porter, who offered him £500 to “drop the charges”.
Mr Gibson ended the call by saying he was in work and couldn’t speak.
After Porter’s arrest, he gave “no comment answers” to officers from Cheshire Police.
Ms Nemat said the burglar had five previous convictions for nine offences including three for theft, non-dwelling burglary, taking a vehicle without consent, and being carried in a stolen car.
His most recent court appearance was in 2019 for destroying or damaging property, which stemmed from an incident when he was filmed on CCTV trying to gain entry to his brother’s supported accommodation by kicking the door.
Following the incident on Camelot Way in August, he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity in July to burglary, fraud in relation to the TV, and committing an act with intent to pervert the course of justice.
Gary Lawrenson, defending, said his client - whom he branded a “walking advert” for former United States First Lady Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” anti-drugs campaign in the 1980s - had sought help to deal with his addiction and was now “clean” from crack cocaine.
He added Porter had referred himself to the Change Grow Live recovery group, in addition to having “addressed his mental health issues”.
Mr Lawrenson conceded Porter’s “unpleasant” crimes had targeted family members, and he noted Porter had even “admitted in a pre-sentence report to stealing from his own mother” to fund his addiction.
Mr Lawrenson said: “He didn’t care about anything, such was the need for the drugs.
“We know and he knows now what drugs like crack cocaine do to you.
“They resort you to stealing from your family and worse.
“Your Honour will recall the Just Say No campaign in the ‘80s.
“This man is a walking advert for bringing back that campaign for what drugs can do to a pleasant man, a man with a loving family.”
He said Porter’s mother’s love for him was a “credit to her”.
Arguing the case for a suspended sentence, Mr Lawrenson said the pre-sentence report had assessed Porter as a “low risk” of re-offending harm, prompting a swift rebuttal from Recorder Steven Everett who rubbished the reliability of the probation service computer programme that works out how likely someone is to return to crime, and said Porter was “at least a medium risk”.
Recorder Everett slammed Porter for the “nasty” nature of his crimes and sentenced him to two years in prison to be served immediately.
The judge said the ransacked flat must have been a “truly awful and terrible thing to have to come back to”.
The sentence included a four-month consecutive term for trying to pervert the course of justice, and the judge imposed a restraining order not to contact Mr Gibson or visit his street.
During his sentencing remarks Recorder Everett said: “How best to describe this?
“The burglary, firstly, was incredibly nasty.
“You knew he was away, that’s why you went in there.
“You spent your time in there ransacking the place to get the best items you could.
“It looks like you even cooked yourself a meal.
“It shows a certain devil-may-care attitude.”
He added: “You telephoned him to try to get him to drop the complaint, which strikes at the very heart of our system of justice.
“If that happens, the system goes haywire and the court has to deal with that appropriately.”
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