Drug addict burglar escapes jail term

Russell Carruthers, 25, of West View Road, Seaford, stole a cheque book and Switch card from a house in Lincoln Close while the owner was gardening one afternoon in May last year.

A resident alerted police and when they arrived they stopped a car driven by Carruthers.

He was given an 18-month rehabilitation order at Lewes Crown Court on Wednesday after admitting to burglary at an earlier hearing in October.

Then, prosecutor Nicholas Hall told Hove Crown Court that officers found the stolen goods under the waistband of his trousers.

Carruthers told police he was in Eastbourne to meet his cocaine dealer who had left the cheque book and Switch card behind, but he later admitted burglary. A charge of having a firearm was dropped at an earlier hearing in September.

The court heard that in April 2001 Carruthers was jailed for two years for a string of burglaries.

Carruthers told the court he started taking drugs at the age of 19. He began smoking cannabis and then became hooked on heroin and cocaine.

He said: 'During the last few years I've travelled down roads of despair and total destruction.'

He apologised to his family and the victims of the crimes and added he'd lost several jobs, a wife, and a college placement over his addiction.

He said: 'I want to kick this habit, I'm determined to do it and change for the better.'

The court also heard he was recently diagnosed with Hepatitis C.

Sentencing him, Judge Anthony Scott-Gall ordered he serve an 18-month rehabilitation order and reside at the Ravens Court drug treatment centre in Bognor Regis.

He told him: 'You have now been provided with the funding to take up this placement and the court is taking a degree of risk.

'But I am satisfied at present you are still drug free and you are determined to rid yourself of this class A addiction.'