Man back before court after his electronic tag went off when he left house to fix leak while on bail

Keith Pulling, 40, of Gray Road, Hendon, nipped outside at 7.13am to deal with a problem with his drain, a court heard.

He was back inside exactly twenty minutes later and did not stray further than the curtilage of his property on Sunday, March 21, South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court heard.

But it was enough to activate the electronic tag which monitors his whereabouts between 7pm and 8am on a court-imposed curfew.

Magistrates in South Tyneside were told Pulling was granted bail by a judge at Newcastle Crown Court on February 9, in relation to a guilty plea to an attempted burglary and other matters.

Added to the curfew is a requirement to live and sleep at his home address and not to enter Sunderland’s Tunstall Park.

Prosecutor Stewart Haywood said: “The defendant is on conditional bail in respect of an attempted burglary and associated other things.

“There have been two previous breaches, on June 16 and September 2.

“On each occasion the defendant seems to go missing for relatively short periods of time.

“This time, he left at 7.13am and returned at 7.33am. It’s a 20-minute breach.

“I’m happy, since the length of time between the last breach, that you could warn him that it’s third time lucky, perhaps next time not lucky.”

Alaister Naismith, defending, said: “The explanation was that he was fixing a drain at the back of his home.

“He decided that he wanted to take immediate action. That’s why it was at such an odd time.”

Magistrates warned Pulling, who admitted the breach, not to break his bail conditions again.

They readmitted him to bail on the same conditions as already exist.

Pulling has admitted the attempted burglary and will be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on Thursday, May 6.