A former England youth rugby player who tried to burgle a cannabis factory on an industrial estate was arrested when he broke into the wrong building.
Hapless Daniel Perrett, 25, and two friends armed themselves with bolt cutters, crowbars and a sledgehammer after receiving a tip-off about the location of a cannabis factory.
However, when they arrived at Central Park Trading Estate, Bristol,, the father-of-two, who played No 8 for England when he was 16, broke into the wrong unit.
When he was arrested there by police he told officers: ”I’ll be honest with you, we were breaking in for the cannabis. I’m addicted to weed.”
Perrett, from Knowle West, Bristol, admitted criminal damage and going equipped to steal and was handed a one-year community order and fined £185.
May Li, prosecuting, told Bristol Magistrates’ Court: ”The police found a cannabis factory inside the building but it was in a different unit to the one Mr Perrett was trying to gain entry to.
”In interview he told police he had received a tip-off that there had been a cannabis factor in the building and said he wanted to take some home to smoke it.”
Perrett caused £700 damage to a shutter door when he carried out the burglary at around 7.20pm on February 1 this year.
Police received a 999 call that the burglary was taking place and arrived to find three men inside the building with a getaway driver parked outside in a Renault Laguna.
Perrett was arrested and has been placed under curfew for the next 12 weeks. He was ordered to pay £100 in compensation and £85 costs.
Judy Hampton, defending, told the court Perrett had developed a cannabis habit after suffering a serious leg injury in July last year.
