A Slovakian man who made a grave mistake when he mistook a funeral director’s premises for a mobile phone shop has been locked up overnight to be sentenced today.
Tibor Horvath, 22, was convicted of burglary after the Crown’s barrister Nadim Bashir produced photos of the premises that he said were “a dead giveaway.”
Horvath, of Spencer Road, Scholemoor, Bradford, was caught red-handed burgling a flat adjoining Ummah Funeral Service. He was detained by the householder at the property on Beckside Road, Lidget Green, Bradford, and arrested by the police at the scene.
But Horvath insisted to interviewing officers and the jury that he thought it was a mobile phone shop.
The court heard he had pieces of a mobile phone on him when he was arrested.
Mr Bashir said Horvath had told “a cock and bull story” to get out of the burglary charge.
He showed the jury photos of the business, with grave stones on display outside the building and a large sign saying Funeral Service.
The shocked occupant of the adjoining flat found Horvath in an upstairs room at 5.30pm on April 30.
The jury was told that the defendant had four convictions for shoplifting in Bradford.
Horvath, who came to the UK from Slovakia five years ago, needed the help of an interpreter throughout his police interview and trial.
He told the jury he did not know what the sign above the shop doorway said. The door to the flat was open and he went upstairs to sell his phones or have them repaired. Asked by his solicitor advocate, Tom Rushbrooke, where funeral directors were located in Slovakia, Horvath said they were in a wood.
He said he did not shoplift any more and had admitted those offences.
After he was found guilty, Judge Robert Bartfield told him he had lied to the jury and all sentencing options were open.
Horvath was sent into custody overnight to be sentenced today after he has seen a member of the probation service.
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