A Sandown man who stole over £1,000 of alcohol has been given a suspended prison sentence – but not before already being convicted of 25 previous theft offences.
Richard Sullivan, 47, of Fort Mews in Sandown pleaded guilty to 3 counts of theft from a shop when he appeared in front of Magistrates on Tuesday.
Ann Smout, prosecuting, told the court that on 3 occasions between 28th August-11th September, Sullivan stole alcohol from Sainsbury’s in Newport totalling £1,135 in value – just like he did in 2021 when he stole 10 bottles of Jack Daniels from Asda.
The 1st incident on 28th August saw Sullivan steal £400 of booze. Then, on 2nd September, he stole £385 of alcohol and on 11th September the 47-year-old stole a further £350 worth. On all 3 occasions, Sullivan went into Sainsbury’s, filled up a bag for life with alcohol and left without paying.
Sullivan was brought before the court after he was spotted on CCTV.
Probation told the bench that the thefts were a result of family pressure and financial struggles. It was detailed that the 47-year-old has 25 previous convictions for theft.
Defending, Barry Arnett said that Sullivan and his family had just been evicted from their home after the landlord wanted to increase their rental fees by £600. He also added that he was a full-time carer for his wife – convicted thief Angela Sullivan.
Sullivan avoided immediate jail time and instead was sentenced to 18 weeks in custody, suspended for 12 months. He also saw his existing community order revoked and resentenced with a new 12-month order with 25 rehabilitation activity days.
Ridiculous – Name the magistrate !
Probably a relation of his.
Isn’t this something that the ‘Court Reporter’ that the Echo uses could do in the article? It would be interesting to know if all these extremely lenient sentences are being handed out by the same Magistrate.
The island magistrates are an absolute disgrace. How many offences do people have to commit before the right sentence of imprisonment is imposed? The magistrates need a good hiding.
The magistrates are working within the rules set out by the Sentencing Council. The Sentencing Code states that the courts must follow any relevant sentencing guidelines, unless it is contrary to the interests of justice to do so.
If you don’t like what has happened, then you are free to complain to your local member of parliament and ask him to get the rules changed.
Surely sentencing like this that brings the whole concept of “justice” into disrepute must be contrary to the interests of justice.
People are losing confidence in the police and criminal justice system and, when that happens, they will start to take the law into their own hands.
That, in turn, will lead to the kind of “sentencing” advocated by the more extreme commenters on this story.
Courts pathetic as usual. This family of oxygen thieves don’t have to pay back the cost of items stolen
So he gets benefits to care for his wife who as it happens is also a convicted thief. Amazing!!!
Crime does pay! Steal all that and you don’t even get prison time, courts are a joke
So free to do it again until he caught again
Why should this leech be allowed to roam our streets . The magistrates should be sacked
and memeber of the public put in their place, then we will get justice.
About time this waster is locked up. Another pathetic decision by a way too lenient judge.
Can’t blame landlord for putting rent up, I would be evicting them( probably paid by housing benefit anyhow) this was not someone stealing a sandwich because starving, how many times have they got away previous. If on universal credit/housing benefit then that could cover some of cost of prison. Why no photo,is he on shopwatch and banned from stores? Times are hard for many but they are not going around stealing alcohol!
I Agree that a suspended sentence is correct.
But my version of a suspended sentence is a bit different to that which is currently used as an effective punishment.
A suspended sentence should be just that.
First suspended.
hands tied together hooked on a crane with the weight of the goods stolen then tied to the ankles
raised by 1 metre for an hour then let down and released.
Second sentence 1 hours 2 metres
and so forth for further sentences.
So on my calculations this time should work out at 25 metres 25 hours with quite a bit of weight tied on.
Before the do gooders complain about this punishment.
AS FLETCH FROM THE T V SHOW USED TO SAY
IF YOU CAN,T DO THE TIME
DON,T DO THE CRIME
Definitely a novel approach, like it. How about bringing back the stocks, or would that infringe on this scumbag’s human rights?
Smoke weed every day
If THAT REMARK WAS ABOUT ME
I HAVE NEVER TOUCHED ANYTHING THAT EVER EVER IF MY LIFE
AND HAVE A VERY DIM OUTLOOK ON ANYONE THAT DOES
HAVING SEEN WHAT CAN GO WRONG
DURING MY FIRE SERVICE CAREER
THANK YOU VERRY MUCH
25 years of smoking it up, pot head
You obviously do
You should have done more time at school to differentiate between a comma and apostrophe.
THATS HOW I GOT INTO THE FIRE SERVICE
BY USING MY COMMON SENSE
IF I HAD LEARNED ALL ABOUT COMMAS AND APOSTROPHES AT SCHOOL
I MAY HAVE ENDED UP BEING A MAGISTRATE MYSELF
LUCKY ESCAPE
How on earth does a defence lawyer keep a straight face ? When delivering such a load of old bull …..
This is blatant theft which in turn costs everyone shopping pays for indirectly….
Shop insurance goes up , passes down to all of us …
No excuses theft is theft …
Should be locked up and pictures posted so staff know who to look out for next time !
The defence lawers laugh all the way to their bank.
So, him and his wife (who he is allegedly caring for) are both convicted thieves.
And, yet another resident from around the Fort Mews, Fort Street area of Sandown. I feel sorry for any regular, honest people who have to live anywhere near this area and these thieves.
1 2 buckle my shoe 3 4 knock on my door 5 6 let’s play with sticks 7 8 close my gate 9 10 we start again
Please tell me these two haven’t bred
Wow. This guy is having a really rough time, with family difficulties too. Good job he wasn’t sent to prison. I hope he gets the help he needs.
These sort of lowlifes need to be removed from society, job done.
Needs to be removed from society, job done
Fed up with this place it’s a licence to carrying on shoplifting he should go to jail the waste of space along with the idiot irresponsible judge who handed him this pathetic sentence he will probably invite him round for Xmas Dinner next time