BURGLAR John Simpson stole £1,800 worth of figurines during a raid at a south Warwickshire house while a family was asleep upstairs, and then crashed while making his get-away in their camper van.

However, he escaped being jailed after a Judge heard that although the police questioned him as long ago as February 1998, when he denied being involved, he was not aware of the decision to then prosecute him.

Instead Simpson, aged 28, of Sycamore Road, Camp Hill, Nuneaton, was sentenced to 18 months in prison suspended for two years and ordered to pay £1,000 compensation after he pleaded guilty at Coventry Crown Court to the burglary.

Peter Haynes, prosecuting, said that in August 1997 Simpson broke into a house on the Fosseway, at Halford, while the family was asleep upstairs.

He stole 12 Royal Doulton figurines and the keys to a camper van which was stolen but abandoned a short distance away after being involved in an accident causing damage which cost £5,000 to repair.

Fingerprints on the frame of a picture which had been taken from the house but left behind, were found to belong to Simpson who had previous convictions for assault, causing damage and driving matters, but none for burglary.

However, when Simpson was questioned by police in February 1998, he denied any involvement.

A summons was issued in June 1998 for him to appear before Stratford magistrates but he failed to turn up to answer the burglary charge, so a warrant was issued for his arrest - which happened last April, added Mr Haynes.

Alistair Young, defending, conceded that the summons had been sent to the correct address.

"But he maintains he has not seen the document before. He was not burying his head in the sand. He simply did not know about the proceedings until earlier this year," he said.

Mr Young said Simpson, had had a "troubled history" which was referred to in a pre-sentence report on him, and as a result was drinking very heavily at the time.

Since the offence he had cut down his drinking, although he was banned from driving for five years earlier this year for excess alcohol, and had held a good job for the last two years - which he would lose if he was jailed, added Mr Young.

Sentencing Simpson, Recorder Peter Ross told him: "I take into account the way you have sought to address your life and the difficulties which have given cause to your drinking problem.

"I have come to the conclusion that only a custodial sentence is appropriate, but that there are exceptional reasons to suspend it."