A SCAVENGER who stole flood-damaged electrical equipment from a skip in Carlisle has been sent to prison.

Jamie Brown, 25, pinched a DVD projector and DVD rewriter from council containers at the city’s Devonshire Walk car park on December 18.

Brown pleaded guilty to theft, and at Carlisle Crown Court yesterday he was jailed for 45 days. The court heard he had taken the items in his search for a Christmas present for his young daughter.

Gerard Rogerson, prosecuting, agreed that Brown’s crime “was not looting” but was instead “opportunist scavenging of skips of household waste”.

Brown was seen by a supervisor to remove the projector and rewriter, and police were called. At first, he said he did not realise it was wrong.

He told police: “I have got no money to buy for my daughter for Christmas.”

However, Marion Weir, defending, said: “He accepted the items taken were not suitable for a five-year-old.”

Brown, she stated, had problems in his personal life and had been “sofa-surfing” having lost accommodation provided by social enterprise Turning Point.

Judge Peter Hughes QC concluded that Brown, previously of North View, Crosby, Maryport, had been guilty of scavenging.

He said: “It must have been perfectly apparent to you that the skips in the Devonshire Walk car park contained items that had been disposed of by people who had lost their possessions in the floods.

“They were not there for people like you to go scavenging over.”

The judge accepted Brown’s crime was not looting, but told him: “There ought to be a short sentence of imprisonment to make it clear to anybody that sort of conduct simply is unacceptable.”