Teenager Jordan Eastwood jailed for three burglaries of Scarborough businesses

Jordan Eastwood, 19, broke into the Pizza Pizza takeaway in North Street, Scarborough, by smashing the glass panels in the door, York Crown Court heard.

He then helped himself to about £100 in coins from the till, bottles of wine and pop and a carton of ice cream.

But even more deplorably, he emptied all the cash donations from an Air Ambulance charity tin on the counter.

Eastwood, from Scarborough, even took the till drawer which he dumped near the scene.

The break-in was one of three burglaries in two days in which Eastwood targeted business premises in Scarborough and broke in by the same destructive means.

Prosecutor Stephanie Hancock said that Eastwood - who had his hood up in a vain attempt to disguise his face - had smashed the glass panel at Pizza Pizza by kicking the door, causing £150 damage.

The till drawer was later found nearby by a street cleaner, but it had been emptied of all its cash following the raid at about 3am on January 7.

The following day, Eastwood, a former landscape gardener, broke into Browns Hairdressers in Barwick Terrace by kicking in a back door.

He snuck into a hallway which led to both the hair salon and a flat upstairs.

“The (male) tenant… heard banging and ran downstairs,” said Ms Hancock.

Eastwood ran away empty-handed but caused £150 of damage to the back door.

Within half an hour, he had burrowed his way inside the Chambers Coffee Bar in Westborough after riding there on his pushbike.

He broke in at about 9.30pm by “kicking and smashing the entrance door’s top glass panel and climbing through”, said Ms Hancock.

Once inside, he stole the till containing £380 before climbing back out through the damaged door.

“He emptied the contents of that till in the car park,” added Ms Hancock, “He took the cash with him and discarded the broken till and rode away.”

The owner called police and Eastwood was arrested shortly afterwards at his home address but made no response to police questions.

However, he was identified from CCTV footage at the premises and charged with three counts of burglary, which he ultimately admitted.

The female owner of the coffee bar - described as a “little gem” by reviewers on Trip Advisor - said her fledgling business had been hit hard by the break-in.

It was a relatively-new business and she had suffered “significant” financial losses, as well as deep personal anxiety as a result of the burglary.

The coffee shop couldn’t open the following day because of the damage to the door and the theft of the till which was damaged beyond repair.

The money inside the till included the float, the takings from the day before and rent money owed to the landlord.

Ms Hancock said Eastwood had a track record for burglary and theft dating back to his earlier teens.

He was first caught shoplifting at the age of 14 and committed his first two burglaries when he was just 16.

He also had convictions for driving offences and cannabis possession, and in May 2018 was given a suspended youth detention order for stealing lead from the roof of Selby Abbey in North Yorkshire.

The suspended sentence was later activated after Eastwood ramped up his offending up to March 2019, by which time he had notched up another four burglaries at other hair salons in Scarborough, as well as newsagents and even the local library, causing “significant” damage to the premises.

In June last year, he was jailed for 16-and-a-half months for those offences.

He was still on licence following his release from prison when he committed his latest offences.

Defence barrister Shila Whitehead said Eastwood was in a “bad state” and had no financial means.

He had been working for a landscape-gardening business in Scarborough but lost his job due to family issues and began offending.

Eastwood, lately of no fixed abode, intended to move back to Teesside upon his eventual release from prison.

Judge Simon Hickey blasted the teenager for causing such “distress” to his victims and the “significant” losses they had incurred.

Eastwood will serve half of the 20-month sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.