Shop thief was off his trolley

A BURGLAR armed with a crowbar and hammer broke into a supermarket foyer and then slumped to the ground as a result of all the drink he had downed beforehand to give him courage.

Once he had collapsed, Andrew Crawford, 28, discovered that he was incapable of lifting a finger to either break into the Coop in Gillingham or to break out again and escape.

He was only released from the supermarket foyer when police arrived to arrest him.

At Medway magistrates' court, his defence solicitor Michael Jenkins said: "He actually welcomed the police who let him out.

"In his drunken state he thought he would try his luck at this burglary, which went so badly wrong for him."

Crawford, from Railway Street, Gillingham, admitted burglary and was jailed for four months.

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