Brazen burglar broke into Scarborough hotels before raiding the till, stealing alcohol and sleeping in a spare guest room

William Bennett, 26, first snuck into the office area of The Crescent Hotel in Belvoir Terrace and stole £65 from the till, York Crown Court heard.

A duty manager later noticed a shortfall in the till and checked CCTV footage which showed a man climbing into the hotel’s bar area through a front window at about 3.30am and then sneaking into the office area, said prosecutor Tayo Dasaolu.

The burly thief left the office with a key and returned a second time with another room key. He then returned a third time when he was spotted by a staff member who “suspected nothing untoward”. Bennett then simply walked out of the hotel’s front door.

At about 12.15am the following morning, he was seen again looking through windows at the hotel. He was approached by a manager and left after a “brief confrontation”.

However, at 11.30am the following day, a cleaner at the Central Hotel in The Crescent found Bennett asleep in one of the guest rooms. The assistant manager was alerted and confronted Bennett, who gave her false details, but checks confirmed he didn’t have a reservation.

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The assistant manager alerted her bosses, but the following morning she found Bennett inside another guest room.

“(Bennett) initially said he had money and ID documents…and said he had been given permission to enter the premises…before changing his account to say that his grandfather had let him into the hotel,” added Ms Dasaolu.

He produced a room key which he had taken from reception as if to corroborate his story but was asked to leave and ran out of the hotel after “a bit of a scuffle”.

The assistant manager checked the hotel’s CCTV footage which showed that Bennett had been prowling around the bar area, before “picking up a drink and drinking it”.

The owner of both hotels was alerted and informed police. He noticed that the keys to his Bentley had been taken from a cupboard inside the office and his vehicle had gone too.

It appeared that Bennett had stolen the keys on August 25, then returned a day or two later to steal the classic car, said Ms Dasaolu.

The owner checked for any other missing items in the hotel and discovered that a hard drive containing “very valuable” personal and hotel information such as company accounts had also vanished.

Further checks around the hotel revealed that several bottles of gin and an iPad had also gone missing.

Bennett was driving out of Scarborough in the stolen Bentley on August 27 when he was stopped by police. A roadside breath test proved positive for cannabis.

He was arrested and taken into custody for a formal toxicity test but refused to provide a blood sample.

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Police found all the items stolen from the owner inside the boot of his Bentley. Bennett admitted he had intended to sell them on.

He owned up to the burglaries but said he couldn’t remember breaking into the hotels because he was “too drunk”.

Bennett, of Haigh Road, Leeds, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary, theft, failing to provide a specimen for analysis and breaching a suspended prison sentence. The offences occurred between August 23 and 27.

He appeared for sentence via video link today after being remanded in custody.

The court heard he had four previous convictions for nine offences including a burglary where he broke into a house while under the influence of cannabis.

That resulted in an eight-month suspended prison sentence in March 2021. He was still on that suspended sentence when he committed the offences in Scarborough this summer.

His solicitor advocate Graham Parkin said there were “substantial issues in (Bennett’s) life” and that at the time of the offences he had little money and was living off benefits, which led to him sleeping in rooms at the hotel and stealing items to sell.

Recorder Paul Reid said Bennett’s “persistent spate of offences” had caused “sheer stress and annoyance to those whose property was taken”.

Bennett was jailed for 22 months and given a four-year driving ban.