A PAINTER and decorator who raided a taxi boss's home at night, called in his girlfriend to ferry away the £3,000 haul, a court was told.

Gary Whitehouse, 28, saw an opportunity to make easy cash when he let himself into John Edgar's Barnoldswick home.

Simone May, the mother of his three-year-old son, told police she did not know he had committed a criminal offence, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Whitehouse was sent to prison for nine months by Assistant Recorder Robert Warnock. Former heroin addict, May, 24, was given a combination order of two years probation and 80 hours community service by the judge who told her she had responsibilities, primarily to her son.

Whitehouse admitted burglary and May pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods.

The couple then lived in Sackville Street, Barnoldswick, but lived on bail at Airedale House, Whinfield Drive, Keighley. The court heard Mr Edgar had gone on an early morning taxi run and stayed at another house on his return to Barnoldswick. Police later contacted him to say his house had been ransacked.

Stolen was £1,000 in cash from a drawer, £460 in coins, a video recorder, Sky decoder and china.

Officers had stopped a car driven by May, and found china behind the driver's seat. May claimed she was moving house. Police also discovered £460 and at the defendants' home they found other property under the bath panel, a wet, recently-worn anorak and £600 hidden in a sock in a garden.

Paul Hague, for Whitehouse, said the defendant, who had previous convictions for burglary, had entered the house at the invitation of the householder and the key was provided by him, as well as the alarm code.

The defendant had previous convictions for burglary. On his last release from custody, in 1993, he met his co- Whitehouse had moved to Barnoldswick to get away from offending and been working as best he could. He wanted to straighten his life out.

Defending May, Martin Hackett said she had no previous convictions for dishonesty.

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