A CONVICTED robber went on a drunken mission to recover his illgotten gains in a village near South Milford, two years after he ditched the cash to avoid police.

Carl Hibbert, 30, pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and an offence under the vagrancy act and was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence at York Crown Court.

Hibbert, previously of Marsh Croft, Brotherton, had already admitted scouring secluded gardens in Lumby on September 15 last year for stolen cash he had dumped in the village more than two years earlier, and trying to burgle one house.

Defending Hibbert, solicitor advocate Kevin Blount told the court that his client had drunkenly embarked on the “foolish” plan last autumn.

He said: “On a previous occasion, a number of years earlier, he had been walking from his then home to a friend’s address and that simply happened to take him through the village.”

On that day he had stolen money in his pocket and, when he spotted a police car, panicked and threw the cash on to the flat roof of a building somewhere in Lumby, Mr Blount added.

He was arrested soon after, and in July 2012 was given a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for shop robberies.

Mr Blount added: “On his release he found work, working for his father. He had money, but he was using that money to drink and fuel a drink problem.

“On this day he was heavily in drink, and having been brooding about what happened to the money founded a very foolish plan to go and look for it.”

Hibbert was caught when villagers in Lumby spotted him in the secluded gardens of homes in the area.

The court heard he admitted looking for the money at one home and, not finding it, flinging a garden ornament at a window in a failed attempt to break in and steal from the house.

Later, he was found in another back garden where he told the retired home owner that he was simply looking for a drink of water.

Sentencing him, Judge Stephen Ashurst said the fact that nothing had been taken from any homes was down to the vigilance of the people of Lumby.

Hibbert was recalled to prison since the offence last year, on licence from the shop robberies, and separately served another 28 days for shoplifting. Judge Ashurst gave him an eight-month prison sentence, suspended over two years.