A homeless man who planned to sleep in a building he believed was empty on New Year’s Day has been jailed. 

Murat Veznedar, 45, broke a number of windows to enter a historic merchants house on High Street in Lowestoft.

Norwich Magistrates’ Court was told he was arrested after a member of the public living in the upper floors of the property reported him breaking glass using a ball hammer. 

Prosecutors said the incident at 11pm on January 1 came when he was already subject to a suspended jail sentence imposed in 2021 for possession of a bladed item.

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Veznedar pleaded guilty to criminal damage and being drunk and disorderly. 

Andrew Spence, mitigating, said the Turkish national who first moved to the UK in 2003 had found himself sleeping rough after losing his job through injury.

“There was no malice in this offence. It was the regrettable attempt of a desperate man to find somewhere to stay,” he added. 

Magistrates sent him to prison after activating his 26-week suspended sentence. 

He was also sentenced to two weeks for assaulting an emergency worker to be served concurrently.