A TASTE for tinned fish ended up with a Church Hill man being jailed for 24 weeks.
Samuel Crawley, 29, of Berkswell Close, pleaded guilty at Worcester Magistrates Court on Friday (September 25) to stealing £100.12 worth of tinned fish from B&M in Redditch, taking £71.28 worth of groceries from Lidl and breaching his Anti Social Behaviour Order.
Owen Beale, prosecuting, told the court it was difficult to establish which offence was committed first as both were carried out on Wednesday (September 23) at about 10.30am.
He said: “He went into B&M and selected the tins and walked out and made no attempt to pay for them,” he said.
“Not long after he made for the Lidl store in Redditch, took three trays of tinned salmon, again carried these out of the store without paying for them. A member of staff saw him put the tins in his car, they asked him to go back into the shop with them but he said ‘No if I get caught again I’ll go to jail’.”
At 11am two officers saw Crawley in the Trafford Retail Park which put him in breach of an Anti Social Behaviour Order and two suspended sentences for theft.
Defence solicitor Sean Newey, told the court all the goods were recovered and sold on by the shops. He said Crawley was spotted by the officers in the road adjoining the Trafford Park and did not realise this was breaching his Asbo.
“This is a young man who has struggled with an ongoing drug problem for many many years, he has had previous terms in custody and custody notices.
“He now has a five-month-old daughter and has a methadone prescription, since he knew his partner was having his child he had made efforts to lower that script from 80 to 40 microgrammes. He plays an active part in her life and wishes to continue to do so.”
However chair of the bench, Tony Fussey, said: “You have got a long list of offending, particularly for shoplifting.
“You failed to comply with a suspended order which was not activated in the July, so you were given a chance there.
“This was premeditated offending, and there is no reason not to activate the suspended sentence in full.”
Crawley was sentenced to four weeks in prison for each theft and the court activated the 16 week suspended sentence. He was also ordered to pay a £180 court charge, and an £80 victim surcharge.
