Shea Tyler, 32, a qualified lawyer and insurance broker from Harrogate, was so up to his neck in debt to his dealers that he resorted to criminality to pay them off, York Crown Court heard.
A Crown Court judge told the former City high-flyer he had literally “snorted his way to prison” after being remanded in custody following his arrest.
Prosecutor Emma Handley said Tyler burgled the family home in Settrington, a village near Malton, in November last year, when he stole a laptop, two televisions and an X-Box games console.
Eight months earlier, on March 31, he pinched a £300 laptop from a man in Leeds on the same day that he was caught drug-driving in a Kia Sportage. A blood test revealed that Tyler was over the specified limit for Benzoylecgonine, a cocaine by-product.
The businessman’s fall from grace was complete when he broke into the family home in Malton and stole over £1,400 of items, some of which were stolen from a bedroom.
Ms Handley said that on the day of the burglary, on November 22, he called his then girlfriend to say that the dealers to whom he was in debt were demanding their money back.
He told her they had threatened to pay a visit to both their houses and his workplace.
The victim said the burglary had had a profound effect on her and her family.
