A burglar was thwarted in his chase away from the police after his trousers fell down and he tripped over, allowing officers to swoop in and arrest him.

Jamie Stanton, 30, and his co-defendant Glynn Threlfall, 32, were both arrested following a burglary at a house in Blackburn on February 26.

Both appeared at Preston Crown Court, Stanton charged with burglary and two counts of possession of an offensive weapon, and Threlfall with the same burglary as well as one count of racially aggravated public order.

The defendants were in a taxi together before the incident and were heading back to one of their addresses, but told the driver to re-route and headed to a house belonging to a Mr Robinson.

Mr Robinson was at home and asleep when he was awoken by loud banging followed by shouts of ‘where is he?’ at around 5am on the day of the offence.

Jamie StantonJamie Stanton (Image: Lancashire Police)

Mr Robinson took refuge in the spare bedroom upstairs while Stanton and Threlfall “ransacked” the downstairs of the property, said prosecutor Richard Flook.

The two men took items including a television, an Xbox and a crate of cider back out to the taxi, while the driver tried to get away saying he had other work to do.

During this, Mr Robinson was on the phone to the police upstairs, hiding behind a door.

The police arrived and the two defendants started to run.

Officers gave chase and saw Stanton pull a metal object from his trousers. It was at this point they fell down and he tripped over, with a large metal baton falling on the floor.

More officers surrounded him and during a search they found a weight in a sock, an Xbox controller, and two bank cards – one belonging to Mr Robinson and another belonging to his co-defendant.

All of the stolen goods were returned to Mr Robinson.

Threlfall made further efforts to escape but was eventually arrested at another nearby house, where he abused one of the arresting officers.

Mr Flook described how Threlfall called the officer a “Paki”, “dirty”, and suggested that he was a terrorist.

Threlfall also tried to claim that ‘Paki’ was not a racist term.

Stanton, of no fixed abode, has 37 previous convictions for 67 offences, while Threlfall, of Lindley Street, Blackburn, has 30 convictions for 54 offences.


Richard Brigden, mitigating for Threlfall, said his actions were “committed on impulse” and that he’s “pretty disgusted with himself.”

Glynn ThrelfallGlynn Threlfall (Image: Lancashire Police)

Keith Jones, for Stanton, said it was a “spontaneous incident” and that he “knows the difficulty he causes for himself when he gets into situations like this.”

Both barristers said their clients were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the offences.

Recorder Ayesha Siddiqi, sentencing, said: “You don’t need me to tell you how terrifying it must have been for Mr Robinson when you broke into his house.

“You also don’t need me to tell you that nobody should be subject to that type of racist language.

“I don’t think it was a very sophisticated burglary.”

Threlfall was sentenced to two years and five months in prison while Stanton received a sentence of two years.