Heartless cocaine-ravaged dad burgled his kids' Leeds home and stole their XBox and Nintendos

Simon Gant, who has been addicted to the drug for years, repeatedly stole belongings of his parents and sold them at pawn shops, Leeds Crown Court heard.

The 37-year-old was jailed after admitting a long list of offences including burglary, theft and fraud, having opened customer accounts under his dad’s name at the likes of Argos and Asda.

The court heard that Gant often owed drug dealers and would regularly ask his parents for money or steal their property to sell.

In March and April of 2023 they went on holiday and let Gant stay at their home because he was homeless. When they returned they found TVs and power tools had been stolen that he had taken to pawn shops, which he later admitted.

His father had to pay out hundreds of pounds to retrieve the items.

In July 2023 Gant stole his mother’s laptop which again had to be bought back from the pawn shop by his parents.

But weeks before that, after his ex partner had been away on holiday with their children, they returned to their East Ardsley home to find that Gant had stolen two TVs, Airpods earphones, two Xbox consoles, two Nintendo Switch, £60 in cash and 11 vapes.

The total value came to £1,497 so Gant’s dad frogmarched him to the pawn shop where he had sold the items. His dad paid £620 to retrieve the children’s consoles.

Gant was arrested months later and admitted breaking into his ex partner’s home, saying he needed the money to pay off drug dealers.

His father also received letters saying he owed money from accounts opened in his name from Studio, Littlewoods, Argos and Asda. It came to more than £5,000.

During a police interview in relation to those accounts, Gant confessed he needed to buy goods to sell and once again pay off dealers.

Finally, on February 1 of this year, he got into an argument with his ex partner about their relationship and she asked him to leave her home.

He pushed her over, grabbed a kitchen knife and threatened to kill her and himself. He smashed a TV and followed her outside after she left the property. Gant then kicked the wing mirrors of her car and threw a wheelie bin at her windscreen, causing damage.

He loomed over her on the floor with the knife in his hand and threatened to kill her again, before laughing.

Gant was arrested the next day and held on remand. He appeared in court over a video link from HMP Leeds.

He admitted four counts of thefts, four of fraud, one assault, criminal damage, making threats to kill and possession of a bladed article.

Gant, c/o Quarry Lane, Woodkirk, has 14 previous convictions for 24 offences, many of which are for thefts, including stealing the children’s games consoles on a previous occasion.

Mitigating, Lea Levine said he had offered guilty pleas to most of the offences at an early opportunity. She said that Gant came into inheritance money and had since paid his father £2,000 and his ex partner £5,000 in reparations.

She said he was now clean from drugs and is “disgusted in himself” and had “deep regret and remorse”. He had been “sofa surfing” and his life had spiralled out of control, having been addicted to drugs since he was 16.

Ms Levine said Gant had also attempted suicide several times and was sectioned on one occasion.

Out of financial desperation, he said he stole from his family to pay dealers and loan sharks whom he said threatened to burn down his parents’ and ex partner’s homes.

But she said that Gant was now in the “best headspace he has been in for 15 years”.

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Judge Kate Rayfield jailed Gant for 30 months and told him: “You were clearly in a spiral of utter self destruction, destroying all of the lives of the people around you that should be the most important people to you.

“You being in custody might perhaps be the wake-up call you need.”

She also gave him a five-year restraining order.