A callous son raided his own mother’s home in a desperate search for money and valuables after he “spiralled to an all-time low” and “self-medicated” on cannabis before starting to “explore crack cocaine”.
Joshua Starkey forced his way into her house after repeatedly kicking the back door and eventually managing to break inside. He searched the house before escaping with some tablets but he had already been seen on telltale security camera pictures, Hull Crown Court heard.
Starkey, 30, of Bransholme, Hull, but recently in custody on remand, admitted burglary on May 3.
Sophie Lamb, prosecuting, said that Starkey went to his mother’s home at about 10.30am but she was not there at the time. Her other son was looking at pictures from security cameras and he alerted her to the fact that Starkey was there.
Starkey tried to walk in to the house but the doors were locked. He shouted through the letter box, walked around the house and climbed over a garden fence. He discovered that the back door was locked and tried to force his way in by using a walking stick and a sweeping brush pole.
“He repeatedly kicked the door and managed to gain entry,” said Miss Lamb. Starkey was inside the house for about seven minutes and was seen leaving.
His mother returned home and discovered that there had been a search of her house and that 54 Pregabalin tablets had been taken. She later said that the incident put her into a panic.
Starkey had convictions for 87 previous offences, 44 of them theft-related, but also including arson, robbery and taking a vehicle without consent. He had been given a six-month suspended prison sentence earlier this year for three non-domestic burglary offences and a community order for assaulting police and causing criminal damage.
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Oliver Shipley, mitigating, said that Starkey had suffered a troubled life but he had not wasted his time in custody on remand at all. He had been released from a prison sentence in 2023 and this was the longest time that he had spent outside custody.
He had “spiralled to an all-time low” and he had been receiving help from his mother. He did not remember the burglary on her home. “There was limited damage to the property and limited items were taken,” said Mr Shipley.
“No persons were in. He made the frank admission that he was self-medicating on cannabis and that he had started to explore crack cocaine. That was the worst decision that he could have made. He has an unenviable record.”
Starkey, a qualified mechanic, was jailed for one year and 11 months.