A BURGLAR was spared a return to prison after being found in possession of a hammer in public.

Kamil Nawrot, 37, had the tool with him when he was stopped at Dukes Mound, Brighton.

It was just weeks after he had been jailed for burgling the Hove Royal Mail depot.

But he was spared being returned to prison because he is now making good progress with the probation service.

Previously, The Argus reported on how Nawrot was seen on CCTV stealing two phones, a Royal Mail jacket, £500 and a computer during a break-in in July last year.

A week later, Nawrot triggered the alarm at St John the Baptist School in Whitehawk Hill Road, Brighton.

He smashed his way into the primary school to use the toilet, he said.

At Hove Crown Court he admitted burglary and criminal damage and was jailed for 16 weeks in September.

Daniel Frier, defending, said Nawrot had moved to the UK from Poland in 2008.

However, his life hit rock bottom after a relationship breakdown in 2018 and he had been sleeping rough with other homeless people on the Downs.

Mr Frier said Nawrot, now of no fixed address, had camped outside the Probation Service offices “begging” for help.

Because of the time spent on remand, he was released and was found with the hammer at Dukes Mound on October 3.

He appeared in court last month where he was given a 21-week suspended sentence over the hammer incident.