Angry burglar warns 'I'll stab you' as brave members of the public chase him down the road

A menacing serial burglar angrily threatened to stab members of the public who bravely followed and chased him – just minutes after he noisily smashed his way into a house.

Drug-addicted Lee Jennings did so much banging and crashing around during the raid that a mother and her daughter who were nearby quickly went to investigate what was happening.

The third-strike burglar turned to heroin at the age of 18 but he was now "far too long in the tooth" to be trapped in the same "spiral again and again and again" by repeatedly reverting to crime, Hull Crown Court heard.

Jennings, 45, of Victoria Avenue, Hull, admitted burglary on June 2. Connor Stuart, prosecuting, said that, at 6.55pm, a woman who was with her daughter spotted a man wearing dark clothes in Arundel Close, off Holderness Road, east Hull, and pulling himself up over the fence of a property. Five loud bangs and the sound of glass breaking were heard.

"Neighbours came outside," said Mr Stuart. "They saw a hole in a glass panel." The woman returned to the front of the house and knocked on the windows to disturb anyone who might have been inside.

Jennings left through a hole in the back of the property and he went through the back gate before turning left to Victor Street. He was chased but he warned his pursuers: "Go away and leave me alone or I will stab you." They retreated.

The occupier of the house was contacted by a neighbour to tell her that her house has been broken into. A number of items had been taken, including a gold necklace with a pendant, valued at £800, a necklace and a pendant, valued at £100, a watch and jewellery. The glass door was repaired and boarded up at a cost of £150, not including the glass.

Police made house-to-house inquiries and CCTV was gathered. A still image of the intruder was obtained and a previous probation worker of Jennings identified him from it. He was arrested on July 25.

Jennings had convictions for 88 previous offences, 37 of them theft-related. He had previous convictions for burglary, most recently in 2021 and including being jailed for two years and nine months.

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Michael Forrest, mitigating, said that Jennings had been out of prison for only three or four months at the time of the latest burglary. He did not have the safety net of a place in the community around him when he was released from prison and he spiralled out of control when drugs took hold of him once more.

"He saw prison as somewhere safe and somewhere to get his head together and somewhere to live," said Mr Forrest. "He had been using drugs and alcohol since his teenage years before turning to heroin at the age of 18.

"It has blighted his life ever since. This is a man who yearns to work and make something of himself. There were five years when he was working.

"It came to an end when his father died. Rather than seeking support for his grief, he turned to old habits. He is an addict. He is on the recovery wing, subject to methadone and he is doing well.

"He has simply gone down this spiral again and again and again. He hopes that, with this period of custody, he can steady the ship. He is far too long in the tooth to be coming back and forth from court to custody."

Judge Tahir Khan KC told Jennings: "You have a bad record for committing burglary. It has to be a custodial sentence."

Jennings, already in custody on remand, was jailed for 876 days, the equivalent of two years and just under five months.