Man who broke into two hair salons in Harrogate stealing thousands of pounds of products is spared jail

Anthony Fraser, 37, broke into Hart & Hart hair salon and Nathan Cosgrove Barbers, both in Commercial Street, on the same weekend.

Prosecutor Eleanor Mitten said that when the owner of Hart & Hart went into work on January 16 she found a broken window and bottles of hair products scattered on the floor.

Two sets of Cloud 9 hair straighteners had been stolen.

CCTV showed Fraser smashing a window in the early hours of the morning, evidently with a brick.

He then left but returned a few hours later and reached in through the smashed window to steal the hair straighteners worth over £300.

The named owner recognised him on CCTV because he had gone to the same school as her partner.

The owner of Nathan Cosgrove went into work on the same Monday morning and found the door slightly ajar and various items including the till had disappeared.

Ms Mitten said the place had been left a “mess” and it was evident that “someone had been throwing things around”.

In total, there were about 30 items missing worth £6,851.

The following day, police raided a “drug den” in the notorious Mayfield Grove, Harrogate, where they found Fraser and a suitcase containing a “large amount of barbering equipment”.

On the same weekend, Fraser raided Rubins Coffee shop in Cheltenham Parade but “appeared to be spooked” by the burglar alarm going off and scarpered. Nothing was stolen.

Fraser, who lives at a homeless hostel in Bower Street, Harrogate, was identified on CCTV again and arrested in March.

He told police he had committed the offences because he had drug debts, no work and was living on the streets.

He said he had sold the hair straighteners to a friend for £100 and that he had broken into Nathan Cosgrove Barbers by shoulder-barging the door.

He was charged with three counts of burglary and one of damaging property.

He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence yesterday (March 29).

In a victim statement read out in court, the owner of Hart & Hart said she had to go through insurance to recover her £3,000-plus loss, mainly for the damage caused to her salon.

Her premiums had gone up due to the raid which she said was a “huge inconvenience” for the business.

The owner of Nathan Cosgrove said he was unable to trade for two days following the burglary which occurred not long after he had opened his business.

He said it had been “extremely hard to get the salon up and running again”.

Fraser had 31 previous convictions for 50 offences, the majority for theft and kindred, dating back more than 20 years.

He was described as a “persistent shoplifter”.

Defence barrister Susannah Proctor said that Fraser, a drug addict, had stolen to pay back drug debts and was diagnosed with schizophrenia about five years ago.

Recorder Andrew Dallas said Fraser had caused “substantial” loss and damage to the two hairdressing businesses.

He added, however, that Fraser had never been given the help he needed by the authorities to deal with his drug, mental-health and homelessness issues.

He said the most appropriate disposal would be a suspended sentence with rehabilitation to “break the cycle of offending” and protect the public.

Fraser received an eight-month suspended jail sentence with a six-month drug-rehabilitation programme and up to 20 days’ rehabilitation activity.

He was not ordered to pay compensation to the victims because of his dire financial situation.