Man smashes window of Exeter pub during attempted break-in after being barred

A man smashed the windows of an Exeter pub during an attempted break-in months after being barred.

Simon Turner was banned from the Clifton Inn in November 2021 and in May 2022 he was caught on CCTV trying to break in causing £500 worth of damage.

CCTV shows him arriving at the pub shortly after midnight on May 30 last year and spending almost two hours coming and going, trying to get in through the sash windows without success. No one was living in the pub at the time. 

The pub landlord found several windows smashed when he came into work. He called the police and when they showed him CCTV, he recognised it was Turner who had been banned six months earlier. 

Turner, a 37-year-old scaffolder of New North Road in Exeter, admitted attempted burglary and was jailed for eight weeks, suspended for two years and ordered to do 50 hours of unpaid community work and 15 days of rehabilitation activities by Judge Anna Richardson at Exeter Crown Court.

She also imposed a 120-day alcohol abstinence order with a tagged monitor, a mental health treatment requirement, and ordered him to pay £500 compensation.

Judge Richardson said: “The CCTV showed evidence of you coming and going and repeatedly trying to get in. You smashed several windows and caused just over £500 damage. There is no reason why the landlord should foot the bill when you are at work and can pay compensation.”