Violent Scarborough burglar Craig Ives jabbed his victim in the face with a glass bottle

Craig Ives, 23, broke into the block of flats in Scarborough with two youths after breaking the lock to the front door, York Crown Court heard.

The burglars - two of them wearing masks or face coverings - then made their way up the stairwell to the victim’s first-floor flat.

Prosecutor Rob Galley said the named victim was in his bedroom when he heard voices and saw “shadows” in his living room.

One of the males, thought to be Ives, told him “aggressively” to stay in his room and “not to move” as the burglars plundered his possessions including bottles of spirits, a mobile phone and a wrist watch.

The victim, who knew Ives, went into the living room and could see Ives with a male and female youth.

“He could see that (they were) taking his bottles of various spirits and (Ives) picking up a replica wrist watch from his coffee table,” added Mr Galley.

“One of the males was heard saying, ‘Hit him with the bottle’.”

The victim – who had locked his door before going to bed – tried to get out of the flat, but Ives “jabbed” him in the face with the bottle, which he held by the neck.

Ives struck him at least twice before the burglars scarpered, said Mr Galley.

The victim suffered a cut to the bridge of his nose. He was taken to hospital for treatment.

CCTV footage from outside the block of flats showed Ives and the two teenagers – who cannot be named for legal reasons – milling around just before breaking into the property on Valley Road at about 6.30am on July 18.

They broke in by damaging the lock to the front door, apparently by kicking it.

The victim gave police a description of Ives and the two youths were identified on CCTV.

Ives, of Maple Drive, Scarborough, admitted he was one of the males on the footage but initially denied assaulting the victim or kicking the door in.

He appeared at the Crown Court via video link on Tuesday after being remanded in Hull Prison following his arrest.

He admitted burglary and stealing the alcohol, the watch and a mobile phone. He also pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm but denied aggravated burglary while carrying a glass bottle, which appeared to have been found inside the flat.

The prosecution accepted these pleas and the Crown proceeded straight to sentence.

Mr Galley told the court that Ives’s latest offences were in breach of two suspended sentences for previous offences, one of which involved striking a female in the face with a bottle, causing a cut to her forehead.

Ives also had a previous conviction for burglary from November 2018, for which he was jailed.

In September last year, he was given a two-year suspended jail term for assaulting the female. By Christmas Eve, he was back in court for shoplifting and in February this year he was convicted of carrying a blade, for which he received another suspended sentence.

Defence barrister Nick Peacock said Ives had an alcohol problem and only had a hazy recollection of the burglary at the man’s flat because he had been drinking heavily.

Judge Sean Morris said Ives had again attacked someone with a bottle, this time causing a serious injury to his nose, “not far from his eyes”.

He told Ives: “You are clearly a violent individual and somebody who is out of control.”

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