Ready for his close-up! Drug addict smashes car window and frantically piles loose change into his baseball cap – unaware his every move is being caught on dashcam

• The drug addicted criminal made off with an iPhone, lighter and some change 
• Prolific burglar James Quarton, 30, convicted for two ‘smash and grab’ crimes
• Court heard how prison was ‘second home’ for Quarton – sentenced to 14 months
• Has been sentenced to four years and five months of jail time since 2014

A bungling burglar can be seen smashing the side window of a parked car before desperately rifling through the contents to find something to steal – unaware the whole robbery is being caught on dashcam.  

Prolific burglar James Quarton frantically searches through the contents of the black Ford Cougar’s inside car door and centre console for anything he can steal to fund his drug addiction.

After setting the car alarm off the haphazard thief makes off with only an iPhone, a lighter and some loose change from the Delta private hire vehicle parked in School Lane in Liverpool city centre.

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The whole ‘smash and grab’ operation lasts less than 30 seconds with Quarton removing his hat and piling handfuls of loose change into the baseball cap before carrying it away like a bag.

Prolific burglar James Quarton, 30, was sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment

Quarton, 30, of no fixed address, was already awaiting sentence for an identical offence at the time, where he broke into a parked car belonging to a 20-year-old female student and stole a laptop.

Yesterday at Liverpool Crown Court , Quarton was sentenced to 14 months in prison for these offences, plus another of production of cannabis.

The court heard that drug addiction had become a ‘way of life’ and prison a ‘second home’ to Quarton.

The owner of the car with the dashcam footage, private hire driver Gavin Rowlands, said: ‘The police arrested him very quickly after the video was posted on social media because he was well known to them.

Quarton can be seen leaning in through the window of the black Ford Cougar that he has just smashed, triggering the car’s alarm

‘It could have been a lot worse – replacing the car window only cost me £30 as I bought it second-hand.’

Quarton has previously appeared in court for a string of burglary offences – in 2017, he was jailed for 28 weeks for his role in an ‘epidemic’ of break-ins at Liverpool city centre bars and restaurants.

In 2014, he was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison after he ransacked a man’s Kensington flat and took all his possessions .

Hands free: Quarton can be seen shoving a lighter from the car into his mouth as he carries out the robbery

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