Career thief caught after Facebook appeal shows video of him on stolen bike at Airedale Avenue

Lester Downey, originally from Leicestershire, was said to have been drawn to the resort as a teenager and had a long record of crimes to his name on the Fylde Coast.

The 23-year-old appeared before a judge at Preston Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to six offences born out of his long-standing drug habit.

A judge was told he had been introduced to cannabis by his father at the age of seven and was supplied Class A drugs by him by the time he was nine.

“That has been the catalyst of all this offending,” said his defence barrister Lewis Bocking.

“He is a young man who is now accruing an unenviable criminal record.”

He admitted stealing a Yamaha motorbike, an e-scooter and attempting to steal a second motorcycle in separate incidents.

He also pleaded guilty to taking a Mercedes AMG car without the owner’s consent, handling stolen goods including the Mercedes car key, a wallet, bank cards and a jacket, and also fraudulently using a stolen bank card to buy food at a McDonald’s restaurant in Blackpool.

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The court heard the Yamaha bike had been taken from a car park in West Street after it was left there chained up along with a crash helmet.

The owner, who had parked it for the day while he was at work, put a message on social media asking for help tracing it and was sent a video taken in Airedale Avenue of a man sitting on the motorcycle and wearing the helmet.

A police officer identified the man as Downey.

In a separate incident an attempt had been made to steal a moped parked in a car park under flats in Yorkshire Street.

The bike, which was locked, had been dragged across the car park and badly damaged.

Police found Downey’s fingerprints on it.

The defendant was also seen on CCTV on another day breaking into a rear garden outbuilding in Northern Avenue where an e-scooter was stolen.

He was spotted again in the vicinity trying to sell it.

On another occasion a man who worked in a local hotel found the keys to his white A-class Mercedes car had been taken from his room along with bank cards, a wallet and a jacket worth £560.

The car was also missing.

Later Downey was seen on camera using one of the stolen bank cards to buy a £22.60 meal at McDonalds in Bank Hey Street in the town centre.

He was with a group of men spotted with the stolen car.

He was subsequently stopped by police and was wearing the stolen coat and carrying the Mercedes car key, which he claimed he had found.

When interviewed he told officers he had a Class A drug addiction and had been made to use the card by others.

Barrister Paul Brookwell, prosecuting, said the owner of the motorbike – which was written off – had lost around £6,000 due to Downey’s criminal behaviour.

Mr Brookwell said Downey had first come to the notice of the courts in 2018 in Leicestershire when he was convicted of robbery. But a string of court appearances after that were before magistrates in Lancashire after he had drifted to the Blackpool area.

Defence barrister Mr Bocking told the judge that Downey expressed genuine remorse for his crimes and apologised to the victims.

He said: “Candidly he knows he shouldn’t have done it.

“He now finds himself awaiting punishment for his actions which he is prepared to take square on.

“Mr Downey is entirely realistic as to the future in the short to medium term. He knows he will receive an immediate custodial sentence and he will use his time in custody to prevent him coming before the courts in the future.

“In his relatively short lifetime he has been addicted to and, by his own father, started using Class A drugs from the age of nine.

“But his father provided cannabis to him from the age of seven. His father would prioritise drugs over Downey’s well-being.

“He admits his offending was fuelled by financial gain to feed his habit for crack cocaine which he has been in the grip of for some time.

“He had been using those drugs on a daily basis and couldn’t get out of it.“

Recorder Rankin described Downey’s record as “terrible” for one so young.

Downey, of no fixed address, was sent to prison for 21 months.