Tea-leaf jailed for biscuit theft

Published Date: 23 September 2009
A biscuit thief has been jailed for a year for stealing tea and snacks from hotel rooms.
David Richardson pleaded guilty to entering The Ambassador Hotel, The Red Lea Hotel and Brooklands Hotel, all in Scarborough, North Yorks, before taking the refreshments, and confronting holidaymakers, which left one woman "frightened to death".A shocked female hotel guest returned to her room to find Richardson had let himself in, helped himself to the hospitality tray and was drinking a cup of tea while watching TV. The 39-year-old, of no fixed abode, was given the maximum sentence available to Scarborough magistrates who handed him two six-month sentences to run consecutively.Richardson argued with the court clerk over two of the charges, and asked for three similar offences at hotels in York and Harrogate to be taken into account, the court heard