Newly married and with a young son, Colbeck grew tired of living apart from his wife and child, and returned to Dewsbury.
Unable to find work in the area and desperate to feed his starving family, Colbeck, John Blezzard and George May broke into a house in Huddersfield stealing food, clothing and money.
Sentenced at the York Assizes on 22 March 1828 to transportation for life for burglary, Colbeck was shipped from London to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) aboard the Manlius.
Atkinson stated: 'Is it possible for an ignorant unlettered plodding scion of his class to understand the construction of the most difficult and scientific structures invented by man?'
Colbeck remarried in June 1850 at Wakefield (District), Yorkshire, England and is recorded as residing in Dewsbury in the UK 1851 census.