A man who stole £800 of alcohol from 3 supermarkets to pay off a drug debt after his children were threatened has appeared in court.
45-year-old Darren Stride, of no fixed abode, appeared at the Isle of Wight Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with 11 counts of theft from a shop and 1 count of going equipped.
The court heard from the prosecution that Stride had stolen £460 of alcohol from Tesco in Ryde, £259 worth from Morrisons in Lake and £80 worth from Sainsbury’s in Newport on dates between September and November this year. He was eventually caught outside Morrisons in Newport and was found to be carrying pliers, which he used to cut off security tags in each store.
It was revealed before Magistrates that Stride had stolen the alcohol not for his own consumption, but to sell on to pay off a £4,000 drug debt owed to 4 or 5 different dealers.
Defending, Barry Arnett said his client previously sold tools and a car in a bid to clear his drug debt, which had built up from taking amphetamines ‘on tick’. Once the money had dried up threats were made to his 3 teenage children with suggestions from the dealers that Stride should steal to make money.
A pre-sentence report from Probation highlighted that Darren Stride is now clear of drugs and is starting a new job as a chef on Friday. They noted 21 previous offences and that Stride had last been in court in 2016.
Magistrates handed Stride a 12-month community order with 15 rehabilitation days, 130 hours of unpaid work and ordered him to pay compensation to the tune of £799, as well as £85 costs and a £95 surcharge.
Such low life should be given an even harsher sentence for doing drugs, NOT be using such as an excuse.
What a low life, not a Father but a sperm doner. Sadly they will likely grow up even worse
I feel sorry for the kids. He had a choice not to take drugs. His kids were bought into this world who had a father addicted to some sort of filthy drug. Hope he stays drug free for the sake of his children and other family members.
As the drug dealers were not in court to deny any of this, then it is just his version of events. Chances are he was stealing the booze to get wasted, or to swap for more drugs and stealing tools to sell on to buy more drugs. This apparent drug debt may just simply be a pack of lies trotted out, in an attempt to dodge any serious consequences from the court.
any self respecting dealer would not have let him run up a £4k bill, especially if they knew he was a penniless junkie to begin with.
spot on,
despite what he said – it is unlikely that the dealers would have threatened his kids- being a dealer is one thing, being a violent physical abuser of a child is a completely different story and one that no dealer would want on his record and brings the police around to the door far quicker than punting gear will ever do
it is sad that he is using his kids as the reason for his thieving – really cares about them – not
Good luck to him with his job as a chef, hopefully he has turned his life around for the good of his children
Are you ordering Mc Donalds new range of Pork Wings by any chance?
u said it how it is most of the time
who in their right mind is going tick drugs to a strung out dole bum junkie? I smell b/s
I wonder where the missing 8 posts disappeared to…..? And why…..?