Burglar Paul Dennett bit a police officer after escaping with a bag of cakes from a Luton café.
Dennett, 32, used a stone to break in through the windows Café 50Nine in High Town Road, Luton early in the morning.
The café’s owner was woken shortly before five in the morning by his mobile phone which was like to the shop’s CCTV.
The man could see the burglar and called the police and neighbouring taxi firm, Luton Crown Court heard on Thursday, July 15, 2021.
Prosecutor Richard Burrington said as the police arrived Dennett emerged from the beer garden of the café, which had previously been a pub. In his hand there was a brown bag containing cakes from the café.
A mobile phone and £40 cash was also taken. Dennett was handcuffed to the front, but struggled and broke free. He was chased and caught nearby.
Mr Burrington said: “He was actively resisting arrest.
“A decision was made to put him to the floor. They decided to handcuff him around his back and he bit an officer between his thumb and forefinger. It caused a small red mark and broke the skin.
“The officer had to get antibiotics and medication at hospital.”
He was taken to Luton police station where nine wraps of heroin was found in his sock.
The cafe was left in a mess, the judge was told. Dennett, unemployed, of Mangrove Road, Luton appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker, obstructing a constable, burglary and possessing a Class A drugs on the morning on June 12 this year. He had previous convictions dating back to 2001.
Minal Raj, defending, said he had been taking heroin regularly and expressed remorse. “He apologies to the owner of the cafe and the officer,” she said.
Ms Raj went on: “He had been released from prison two months earlier. He had no accommodation when he came out and fell back into his old ways of drinking and taking drugs. On the day he was completely out of it.
“The shop’s alarm was blaring when the police arrived and he was holding a bag of cakes. He said he was still drunk at that time and was committing offences to fund drug use.”
Recorder Howard Cohen jailed him for a total of seven months.
He told him only an immediate jail sentence was appropriate and said the police officer’s job had been to protect the public from people like Dennett. Ends
