Jail for despicable Wigan thief who plundered an ambulance on a 999 call

Clifford Faulkner was this week jailed for 34 weeks after a crime spree which also saw him commit a smash and grab theft in a town centre store and trying to steal a man’s doorbell.

Wigan and Leigh magistrates were told that at around 8pm last Thursday 999 workers had been treating a patient in Crompton House in Scholes. The paramedics returned to the rear of the ambulance at which point the Marsh Green 36-year-old seen dropping a rucksack out of the window and open the door and leave. The rucksack is the property of paramedic Nigel Smith. Faulkner then calmly walked to Derby House and exited the lift carrying the stolen bag.

The court heard that the damage he caused to the ambulance breaking into it meant it had to be temporarily taken out of service.

Less than an hour later he was seen on CCTV hurling a paving slab through one of the glass doors at Wigan’s WHSmith store on Standishgate and emerging 15 minutes later with carrier bags. It transpired that he had stolen £321 worth of e-cigarettes and e-lighters.

And earlier the same day he was caught on camera in Scholes interferring with CCTV and, bizarrely, trying to steal a doorbell from resident Steven Bennett’s home.

Faulkner pleaded guilty to all the charges against him

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