COMMENT: Meet Wearside's contender for 'despicable crook of the week'

Whatever your views on the use of cameras to record people’s movements, there are few who wouldn’t welcome seeing Ambler behind bars courtesy of CCTV footage.

Ambler stooped lower than a snake’s belly when he stole a collection box containing cash from a Premier story in East Rainton.

But that wasn’t all he pilfered. As well as being caught on camera at the store, he was also captured on video kicking his way into a garden shed to steal a girl’s £500 mountain bike.

Ambler’s bid to Wearside’s most despicable crook of the week was clinched when he appeared in court to admit spitting at a nurse while receiving Sunderland Royal Hospital.

Detective Constable Neil Swainston showed considerable restraint when summing up Ambler’s actions.

He said: “For somebody to brazenly steal from a charity which relies on the hard work and dedication of volunteers is quite frankly deplorable. He should be ashamed of his actions.

“It is clear that he had no conscience.”

Our readers will, no doubt, have stronger words to sum up Ambler’s criminal activity.

There’s are plenty of reasonable civil liberty arguments opposing the proliferation of cameras in our society, but when they help take despicable individuals like Ambler off the streets there’s only one word springs to mind… Result!