A BURGLAR who used other people’s bank cards soon after they were stolen in house raids has received a suspended prison sentence.

Benjamin Watson, 29, was on parole from a 66-month prison sentence for robbery and another offence when he carried out a series of crimes in May and June 2022, York Crown Court heard.

Celine Kart, prosecuting, said a resident confronted the 29-year-old burglar as he was trying to steal a console in his living room at 10.30am.

He escorted him out of the house and checked the intruder’s pockets as he did so.

Some days earlier, Watson had used bank cards stolen in three other house raids at the Marks & Spencer garage in Lawrence Street, a Sainsbury’s branch and a Spar shop and tried to use a card without success in a One Stop shop. On each occasion, the value of goods was under the £100 limit for contactless payment.

In each case, he had used them before the card owners realised they had been burgled.

Watson, of Peasholme Centre for the homeless, central York, pleaded guilty to burglary, three charges of handling stolen goods and three charges of bank card fraud by false representation.

He has 90 previous convictions.

His solicitor advocate Neal Kutte said that following his release from the five and a half year sentence imposed in 2018, Watson had committed offences for which he had been sentenced in 2022 and been recalled on licence to serve the remainder of the robbery sentence about the time he was jailed for breaching a restraining order in July 2022.

But he had not been charged with the burglary and bank card offences until January this year, after he had finished those sentences and the period of recall.

A support worker from the homeless hostel sent the court a reference as did Watson’s grandfather, who said he had seen a change in Watson since his release from jail in 2024.

“I am being told you are at a turning point,” Judge Simon Hickey told Watson. “If you are I will give you an opportunity.”

He passed a 22-month prison sentence, but suspended it for 18 months on condition Watson does 30 days’ rehabilitative activities and 100 hours’ unpaid work.

A probation officer said in a court report that Watson showed no empathy with the victims of his crimes.

Ms Kart said police found the stolen bank card that was declined at the One Stop shop in a council waste bin nearby.

When confronted by the resident as he was stealing the console, Watson had claimed he thought he was in his girlfriend’s house.

Mr Kutte said at the time of the offending, Watson had been on drugs but had not taken any since his release from prison this year.

He was doing cash in hand gardening work and living on benefits but hoped to get full-time work.