A judge told him: ‘The frightening aspect of this is that she helped you but you put her window in’
Arron Key admitted burglary(Image: Humberside Police)
A drug-addicted young burglar callously repaid the kindness of a good-natured woman who helped him – by later smashing his way into her home, jumping in through a window and stealing her mobile phone. The woman had allowed serial criminal Arron Key to make a call on her phone just minutes earlier – something that “many people would not have done”.
But he later realised that he had dropped a £20 note in her home after she allowed him inside – so he broke into her home to retrieve it, Hull Crown Court heard. Key, 22, of Arundel Close, off Holderness Road, Hull, but recently in custody on remand, admitted an offence of burglary on February 4.
Maya Hanson, prosecuting, said that a woman was sitting at her dining room table at 5.45pm when she heard a knock at the front door of her home in Montrose Street, east Hull. She opened the door far enough to see a man and a woman standing there.
“She did not recognise who they were due to it being dark outside,” said Miss Hanson. The woman asked the people what they wanted and the man – Key – asked to use her mobile phone.
She recognised his voice and let him into the property. She saw his face and realised who it was. She phoned the number that he provided and he was on the phone for about a minute.
After finishing the call, Key became aggressive to the woman and a male friend, who was with her. He was asked to leave and he did so.
The woman locked the door behind Key but she heard him shouting: “I want my 20 quid back.” It was believed that he had accidentally dropped the £20 in the living room earlier.
She heard the sound of rubbish bins being moved and she rang 999.
Key smashed a bay window using a bin and he jumped through it. A TV fell from a unit in front of the window.
“The defendant picked up a £20 note from the living room floor, turned back towards the woman and took her mobile phone out of her hands,” said Miss Hanson. “He jumped back out of the window and left,”
Key made no comment during police interview and he denied knowing the woman. He had convictions for 57 previous offences, 37 of them theft-related between 2022 and last year.
Dale Brook, mitigating, said that Key had written in a letter to the judge saying: “I am truly sorry for being in front of you. I can’t express how apologetic I am.”
He claimed that he had been in a “toxic” relationship with a woman at the time and that he “spiralled out of control and relapsed into drugs”. He wrote: “I am deeply sorry for my stupid ways. I will not let you down again.
“I am deeply sorry to you and the victim, who did not deserve what happened.” Being in custody had given him time to reflect on his actions and he wanted to return to the “nice, honest, working man I used to be”.
Key was now drug-free. “He was almost certainly under the influence of drugs at the time,” said Mr Brook. “The offence was idiotic in its nature. There was no planning or organisation.”
Judge Richard Woolfall said that the woman had kindly allowed Key to use her phone, which “many people would not have done” but he later threatened her. “The frightening aspect of this is that she helped you but you put her window in,” said Judge Woolfall.
Key was jailed for two years.
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