A gang of burglars thought they had found the perfect accomplice – a dwarf able to clamber into derelict houses through the smallest of holes.
But they didn’t count on Lee Kildare getting drunk while leading their scrap metal raid.
When police were called to a disturbance at a house in Newcastle. The 22-year-old promptly poked his head through a broken panel in the front door.
‘He helped himself through the hole and was arrested. He was very drunk and said if the police hadn’t arrived he would have stolen the copper.
‘When asked about the scrap metal lying around the house, he couldn’t remember anything about it but said he probably would have stolen that too,’ prosecutor Fiona Varley told magistrates in Newcastle.
Kildare, of Walker, Newcastle, admitted burglary and received a 12-month community order.
He said local gangs exploited him.
