A TERRIFIED man was threatened with a knife in his kitchen and had boiling rice thrown at him as one of several burglars demanded the key to the Porsche on the driveway.
After the contents of the pot were thrown at him, he handed over the key – and the three intruders made off in the car with a haul of jewellery, Warwick Crown Court has heard.
But one of them, James Chalmers, was captured by a CCTV camera as he knocked on the door to check whether anyone was in before pulling down his balaclava mask.
Chalmers (27) from Coventry but of no fixed address, was jailed for five years after pleading guilty to the burglary, receiving stolen property and two offences of dangerous driving.
Prosecutor Suzanne Francis said that on November 5 last year police officers on patrol in the Holbrooks area of Coventry saw two cars being driven at excessive speed.
When the police tried to stop them in Beake Avenue there was ‘a small shunting’ by Chalmers, who was driving a Ford Cougar that had been stolen in Earlsdon the previous night.
He then made off at speed, and the officers were not able to give chase because they had stopped the other driver and arrested him.
On January 8 a woman leaving her home in Barnack Avenue, Stivichall, at just before 1pm had to wait for a Mercedes car to pass before pulling off the drive.
CCTV cameras at the house showed that after she had left, the Mercedes returned and one of the three occupants, Chalmers, got out and walked up to the front door.
Clearly identifiable from another camera, he knocked repeatedly on the door, but got no answer from the woman’s husband who was at home but assumed it was their son returning for lunch.
While he was knocking, Chalmers put a balaclava on his head, wearing it as a hat until pulling it down as the other two men from the car, having parked round the corner, ran to the house, also wearing balaclava masks.
They forced their way in, and Chalmers and one of the others immediately made their way upstairs while the third man went into the kitchen to look for the keys to a Porsche parked on the drive.
When he saw the husband, who was preparing lunch, he grabbed a kitchen knife and threatened him with it while ordering: “Get down, give me the keys.”
He then grabbed a bowl of rice that was cooking on the stove and threw it at him, at which he was told where the key was.
One of the intruders then shouted to get out, and they left, having been in the house for less than two minutes, with a quantity of jewellery, and drove off the £30,000 Porsche.
Two days later the police spotted Chalmers driving the Mercedes, and when they tried to stop him, he drove on the wrong side of the road and went the wrong way round a roundabout.
He reached 70mph in residential roads before crashing into two cars as he tried to squeeze between them in Aldermans Green Road and, having stalled the Mercedes, was arrested by officers who had to smash the window before dragging him out.
Miss Francis added that Chalmers, who tested positive for cocaine, had previous convictions for dangerous driving, supplying drugs, conspiracy to steal and a non-domestic burglary.
Simon Hunka, defending, conceded: “The question is one of length, rather than type of sentence. He left education and took a criminal path. His first offence was when he was 17.”
Mr Hunka said Chalmers had been in a stable relationship for 14 years, and he and his partner, who had a responsible job in the health service, had two children.
But Chalmers who suffers from ADHD and autism, found ‘the working environment was something he couldn’t do, and the lure of committing criminal offences was too much for him.’
Jailing Chalmers, and banning him from driving for five years and one month, Judge Sarah Buckingham said: “It was one of the most serious burglaries I have had to deal with.
“There is no doubt you resort to crime to support your family, instead of looking for and maintaining work.”
