See shocking damage that left £5k repair bill after burglar ripped out boiler and copper piping from home

Grant Eggleston targeted the home when it was empty and ripped out the boiler, pulled sinks and taps from the walls and even tore up carpets and floorboards to get what he wanted.

Photographs show some of the destruction caused when Eggleston removed the carpet and floorboards to get at the pipework below.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the damage during the raid in February last year left the owner of the house, in Houghton, Sunderland, with a £5,500 bill to repair.

Eggleston, of Seaton Avenue, Houghton, was collared because he cut himself and blood found at the scene was matched to him.

The 47-year-old admitted burglary.

Judge Tim Gittins sentenced Eggleston, who has convictions for eight previous house raids, to 32 months behind bars.

The judge told Eggleston: "When you entered the premises you did not just steal from them, you ransacked them and in doing so you vandalised the premises, ripping the boiler from the wall and thereafter taking up carpet and floorboards, ripping them up to access pipping, which you also took.

"It is fortunate there was not substantially more damage.

"And for what? To make a few pounds from scrap for yourself because you were in a tight financial position."

Vic Laffey, defending, said Eggleston's last conviction for burglary was 12 years ago and he has been out of trouble generally for almost a decade.

Mr Laffey said Eggleston's employment had "ground to a halt" during the pandemic and he was under financial pressure as a result.

Mr Laffey added: "He accepts wholeheartedly that he succumbed to temptation which presented itself and did something he deeply regrets."

The court heard Eggleston claimed he had stored the piping, that he wanted to sell for scrap, in the garden of the house he raided and when he went back with transport to collect it it had gone.

Mr Laffey said: "He actually made nothing out of this situation."