A repeat shoplifter from Sandown has been handed a suspended prison sentence after stealing over £420 worth of goods – including coffee, food and makeup – from stores across the Isle of Wight.
James Smith, 41, of Park Mews, appeared before Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court last week (17th July) where he admitted 4 separate thefts committed in Sandown and Newport between 24th June and 6th July.
The court heard that on 24th June, Smith stole makeup worth £76.00 from Boots in Newport. Less than a week later, on 30th June, he returned to Tesco Express in Newport and took 20 jars and packets of Nescafe coffee valued at £148.00.
This was followed by a further incident on 4th July when he stole another 20 jars of coffee, worth £155.00, from the same Tesco Express store. Just 2 days later, on Sunday 6th July, Smith targeted the Co-op Foodstores in Sandown, taking food items and Nescafe coffee to the value of £42.90.
He indicated guilty pleas to all charges when he appeared in court on Thursday, with magistrates taking into account his early admissions.
These latest offences add to Smith’s lengthy record of shoplifting. In 2022, he was fined for stealing £5 worth of meat from a Co-op store. Later that year, he admitted taking steak and a whole chicken from the Co-op to feed himself and his drug habit. In early 2023, he was again convicted after stealing meat from East Cowes’ Co-op due to homelessness and hunger.
Prosecutor Laura Jenkins-Rees told the court that the most recent offences were aggravated by this pattern of similar criminal behaviour.
Magistrates concluded that the thefts were serious enough to warrant a custodial sentence but agreed to suspend the 6-week prison term for 12 months in light of Smith’s current efforts to turn his life around. The sentence carries no additional requirements.
Smith has been ordered to pay a total of £421.90 in compensation to the affected retailers.
That’ll teach them………………
At least there are no Cereal shoplifters
I would be lost without my Kellogg’s frosties
They’re great.
Are the magistrates ever going to send anyone to prison….all I have read recently is criminals with multiple previous convictions avoiding jail….where is the incentive for people to reform and are magistrates helping to keep decent law abiding people safe…I think not
They need the spaces for the protesters.
No justice as always. Suspended sentence that no doubt won’t be triggered the next time this lowlife gets caught. What kind of message is that? Obviously shoplifting as perfectly acceptable…might give it a go myself
Must drink a lot of coffee then
Have you seen the prices coffee shops are charging thesedays
for a coffee.
Outrageous
Is he still homeless and addicted? If so, his best bet is to do it again within the 12 month window. Maybe wait til late autumn though, that way he’ll get housed and treated when the bad weather sets in. Not a cat in hell’s chance otherwise. Poor sod. Rinse and repeat.
I don’t understand why there are homeless persons
in the country.
The country accommodates persons who arrive into
the country in luxury 5 star hotels, so why not do the
same for the homeless UK Citizens.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
No, they really don’t. Unless, of course, you’ve been reading The Sin? We have a legal obligation to house those seeking asylum TEMPORARILY while their claim is processed, usually basic accommodation, basic hotel if they must. Not for life. They are called dispersal properties. If they are granted asylum…they are on their own in terms of housing, as is every other person in the country, this bloke ^^ included. Not sure why you didn’t just stop at the first 3 words….
The country does not house anyone arriving in luxury five star hotels. This is propaganda put about by Reform and the like to try to focus all the ills of the world on immigrants. It is true that there is a cost to immigration, just as there are benefits, but the real purpose of this propaganda is as a decoy to deflect people from the much bigger problems ie that the wealth of the country is being leached away by a very small number of ultra rich individuals who pay nothing back.
I fear his current efforts to turn his life around will have ceased the moment he walked out of the court.