Burglar who stole and crashed Newcastle student's car jailed

Gary Hearn was jailed for 40 months

A burglar who crashed a car he had stolen from a student house has been jailed for more than three years.

Gary Hearn took the £8,000 VW Up after stealing its keys from a kitchen in Jesmond, Newcastle, in July 2023, the city's crown court heard.

Just two days earlier, Hearn, 39, had been found unconscious in the street with a games console and passport he had stolen from another student house.

He admitted offences including aggravated vehicle taking and burglary.

The court heard Hearn had dozens of convictions for burglary, the first from 1998, and had been in and out of prison throughout his life.

Judge Nicholas Lumley KC said Hearn, who was addicted to drugs including cocaine and Valium, targeted student houses to burgle.

'Ravages of addiction'

On the night of 4 July he broke into a house shared by students and young professionals on Heaton Grove, Heaton, and ransacked multiple rooms before being disturbed by one of the residents.

He took a bag containing one man's passport and a PlayStation 5 games console, but the items were recovered a short while later when they were found with Hearn as he lay unconscious in a nearby street.

Two days later, he entered a student house on Bayswater Road in Jesmond and took the keys for a young woman's VW Up from a kitchen counter.

The woman, who had been staying with her boyfriend, found out about the theft when she was contacted to say her car had been involved in a crash on Osborne Road.

The court heard the car was badly damaged after being crashed into bollards and other street furniture very close to where it had been stolen from.

Judge Lumley said Hearn, of Springwell Avenue in Newcastle, had a "huge number" of previous convictions with the latest committed whilst he was in the "ravages of drug addiction".

He said he accepted Hearn was "very remorseful", with the judge adding he hoped hopes expressed on Hearn's behalf that he was turning his life around with treatment in prison were "sincere".

Hearn was jailed for three years and four months and banned from driving for a year.