Serial Scarborough criminal jailed after admitting stealing more than £7,000 in sneak-in burglary

Lee Frame, 28, crept into the woman’s flat on Albion Road, and stole her rucksack which she had left on her bed after nipping to the bathroom.

Inside the rucksack was £7,000 cash, the victim’s mobile phone, her medication and bank card, prosecutor Brooke Morrison told York Crown Court.

She said the woman, a Romanian national who lived alone, had only been in the bathroom for five minutes before she returned to find her rucksack had gone missing.

Police identified Frame from CCTV at the property.

The footage showed him sitting on a wall, drinking, outside the property earlier in the day.

It then showed him “tiptoeing” up to the front door of the woman’s flat moments after she returned home at about 8pm on September 20 last year.

He was then seen leaving the property with the rucksack, inside which was £7,000 the woman had saved up to send back to family in Romania.

Police located Frame at a caravan site in Bridlington where he was arrested and searched.

Officers found the victim’s mobile phone on him, along with £520 cash.

The caravan site confirmed he had paid £300 for accommodation, but it was not clear where the rest of the money – more than £6,000 – had gone.

Frame was charged with burglary and admitted the offence.

He appeared for sentence today (Jan 26) after being remanded in custody.

The court heard that Frame – formerly of Oak Lane and Beulah Terrace, Scarborough, but lately of no fixed address - had 46 previous convictions for 89 offences including 55 for theft, mainly shoplifting.

His 15-year criminal career began in 2008 and included serious violence, damaging property, handling stolen goods, theft from a dwelling, going equipped, fraud, possessing Class B drugs and numerous breaches of court orders.

Since the burglary on Albion Road, he had been convicted of assault for which he received a nine-week jail sentence.

Emma Handley, mitigating, said that at the time of the offence, Frame was living at the Rivelyn Hotel on Albion Road.

She said his life had spiralled out of control due to drink and drugs and on the day in question he had “seen an opportunity and taken it”.

Judge Simon Hickey said the victim must have been highly distressed to lose such valuable items, including a “vast” amount of money, and the impact on her “must have been great”.

He noted that over £6,000 of the stolen money had simply disappeared and spent on “goodness knows what”.

Frame was handed an 18-month jail sentence but will only serve half of that behind bars before he is released on prison licence.