A BURGLAR who used rocks from the beach to smash windows at a seafront ice-cream parlour has walked free from court after a judge gave him a suspended prison sentence.

Daniel Fowler, 23, of London Road, Ipswich admitted breaking into the ground floor ice cream parlour at the Spa Pavilion in Undercliff Road West, Felixstowe, on April 22 and stealing soft drinks, ice creams and confectionery.

He was given an eight month prison sentence suspended for two years, placed under supervision for 12 months, ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work in the community and to abide by a curfew between the hours of 8pm-4am for six months.

He was also ordered to pay �300 costs.

Sentencing him, Judge John Holt said Fowler had used rocks taken from the beach to smash six windows and in addition to the damage to the windows, glass fragments had also got into a fridge resulting in the ice creams it contained being thrown out.

He said the total bill for damage and stolen items was in the region of �1,500.

After reading a pre-sentence report and hearing that Fowler was in full time work Judge Holt said he was prepared to give him a chance by passing a suspended prison sentence.

Godfried Duah, prosecuting, told Ipswich Crown Court that police had been alerted in the early hours of April 22 after an alarm activated. When staff arrived at the ice-cream parlour they discovered five windows had been smashed in the parlour and one in the upstairs restaurant.

Bottles of drink including alcohol had bee stolen and some of the bottles were found on the beach. The premises had to be closed while the damage was assessed and repairs were carried out.