Drunk burglar needed assistance escaping Sidwell Street uni flats

Confused burglar, Simon Rickard, required help from a passerby as he tried to flee the scene of the crime. 

CCTV caught Rickard deliriously wandering the Sidwell Street halls in a drunken daze.

Mr Sean Brunton, prosecuting, said: “He could not remember committing the burglary.”

Simon Rickard

Rickard stole a laptop but left his hat and gloves behind in its place, causing him to return and search for his belongings.

It was only when a friendly resident helped him use the Exit button in the foyer that he was able to actually vacate the building with the goods, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Rickard, 43, of Arena Park, Exeter, admitted to burglary and was jailed for six months by Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, at Exeter Crown Court.

He burgled the flats in January – the same week he targeted expensive country homes at Stoke Canon and the Exe Valley.

He was ordered to serve his sentence after the 30 months he is already serving for those respective burglaries.

An accommodation block on Sidwell Street, Exeter

Judge Gilbert said: “If this offence had been known about when you were sentenced in March your sentence would have been longer. I am prepared to accept you were so befuddled with drugs you could not remember doing it”.

Mr Brunton said: “This happened at the same time as a spree of offences for which he was sentenced in March.

“They were carried out at a time when he was out of control through drink and drugs.

“He is very clearly recognizsable on the CCTV which shows him going into the room with his hat and glove and coming out without them.

“He was then seen in the foyer where he could not get out and needed help to use the exit button.”