A PROLIFIC Carlisle criminal stole a tracksuit during a city burglary which he was seen wearing by its owner days after the crime.

Heavily convicted Kane Queen, 30, had briefly been resident at a Warwick Road address where recovering addicts are given support and accommodation.

Queen dropped out of the programme as he returned to crime. And Carlisle Crown Court heard he went back to the Warwick Road property on 30th April.

“That gives him knowledge of the premises,” said prosecutor Brendan Burke of Queen’s short stay at the address in question. “And, more importantly, timetables; knowing when meetings are; when the premises will be empty because everyone is at a therapy meeting.”

Two residents returned to the house and noted that clothing, aftershave and watches had been stolen after Queen sneaked inside.

“In fact it was clothing which was the trigger for interest in this defendant,” said Mr Burke.

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“(One resident) saw him on 18th May with the tracksuit stolen from him in the burglary. He then informed the police of his suspicions, fortified because he knows this defendant — albeit a sorry performance on the programme — had lived there for a week.

“CCTV was then looked at and this defendant was identified on it.”

While in custody, Queen then delivered vile racial abuse to a shocked police officer, whom he told: “I am racist.”

And on 31st January this year, Queen smashed his way through the front door of Carlisle’s Co-op store in Denton Street in the dead of night. He stole £40 worth of alcohol.

“He made off on a push bike,” said Mr Burke of that crime. “He had masked himself, no doubt as a precaution against CCTV because just about every (police) officer in this city knows who he is.

“That didn’t achieve his objective because he was identified in any case by a police officer familiar with him from CCTV at the store.”

Queen, latterly of Borland Avenue, Carlisle, had been wearing the same clothing during an earlier theft from the shop.

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When brought to court, he admitted two burglaries, a racially aggravated public order charge and was in breach of two conditional discharges previous imposed for other thefts.

The court heard he had 73 offences to his name, including a string of burglaries, and had once again triggered a mandatory three-year jail term for repeat offending.

Defence barrister Verity Quaite, conceded Queen had an “appalling” criminal record.

Ms Quaite spoke of significant trauma in his past, and of a downward spiral and crack cocaine use following one of several more recent bereavements. “He has experienced a great deal of loss,” she said.

Recorder Anesta Weekes KC imposed a total prison sentence of 29 months, giving Queen a discount for his guilty pleas.