Meet the dopey burglar who raided a Poulton restaurant and then tried to sell stolen wine to an off duty cop
Higginson had half a dozen bottles of wine in a backpack and between 15 and 20 in a large bucket nearby. CCTV later showed he had broken into the restaurant in broad daylight and spent around two hours in the premises.
This is the face of the dopey thief who tried to sell stolen booze to an off-duty policeman.
Sporting a hangdog expression, 28-year-old Jamie Higginson was snapped by a police photographer soon after his arrest.
The officer was approached by Higginson while he was out shopping in Poulton-le-Fylde and rang colleagues at Fleetwood Police Station to check him out.
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He was arrested and appeared before a judge at Preston Crown Court for burglary at a restaurant in Breck Road, Poulton.
He was also sentenced for a second burglary in Preston and two offences of shoplifting in the Lake District and Crewe.
He was sent to prison for three years one month after a judge heard the other burglary, at a gaming store in Manchester Road, Preston, had cost the owners a staggering £40,000.
Higginson, of no fixed address, was said to have been a rough sleeper at the time of his "shopping" spree.
He admitted the two burglaries, two theft charges, criminal damage and failure to surrender to bail at a previous hearing.
The Poulton burglary on April 7 last year was the first in his mini crime wave. An upstairs store room was broken into and bottles of champagne, wine and spirits reportedly worth around £5,000 were stolen.
The shop had recently closed due to a fire. Hours later an off-duty police inspector was about to go into the nearby Aldi supermarket when a drunken Higginson approached and asked if he wanted to buy any wine.
He said he had around 70 bottles in a car close by.
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The officer was concerned he might be drinking and driving so contacted police in Fleetwood and continued to watch him and another man approaching people going into the shop and also offering to sell them wine.
Officers arrived and arrested both men.
Higginson had half a dozen bottles of wine in a backpack and between 15 and 20 in a large bucket nearby. CCTV later showed he had broken into the restaurant in broad daylight and spent around two hours in the premises.
Ellie McManus, defending, said her client had a traumatic childhood, being put into care at the age of three.
She said: “He is a vulnerable individual, easily influenced by others, He accepts he is easily pressured by his peers and finds it difficult to say ‘No’ to people."