Published date: 08 February 2017 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterr
An addict’s day to day life was to go out and “make money” by committing petty crime to fund his heroin addiction, a court heard.
Richard Thomas, 32, of Rivulett Road in Wrexham, was said to be using four bags of heroin a day at one stage.
He had been out shoplifting, on one occasion within a short time of being placed on a community order by magistrates in Wrexham for an earlier shoplifting offence.
Thomas stole an expensive bicycle from Coleg Cambria in Wrexham and also stole his own mother’s computer tablet.
When his mother later stood up to him he damaged the bathroom window and a window in her partner’s car.
At Flintshire Magistrates’ Court at Mold yesterday, Thomas was jailed for 32 weeks after he admitted a series of seven theft offences and two charges of criminal damage.
District Judge Gwyn Jones said that it was true that he had not been given the chance of drugs rehabilitation in the past.
That was because the offences he had committed were so serious and the current offences were no exception.
Prosecutor Rhian Jackson gave details of Thomas’ spate of offending.
In October he stole a £1,200 bicycle from the college and was caught thanks to the victim’s mother.
She saw the bicycle – although it had since been painted black – at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.
The court heard how she took a photograph of it with the defendant standing nearby.
Mrs Jackson said the victim had also seen the defendant with the bicycle in a street in Wrexham and was convinced it was his, but it had never been recovered.
On December 16 the defendant and another stole a 42 inch television from the Tesco Store in Wrexham.
He had seen staff at the front door and disappeared with it out of the fire exit.
Staff saw him running away in the distance carrying the television, valued at £199.
On December 22 he stole perfume valued at £185 from Wilkos on the Island Green Shopping Park.
He tried to steal groceries valued at £232 from Morrison’s in Ruthin Road on January 10 by attempting to push a trolley through the fire escape, but left the goods behind.
The same day he stole £159 worth of perfume from Asda Living. A week later he stole a DVD player valued at £69 from Tesco.
On January 28 he stole his mother’s computer tablet and when he was refused entry on February 4 – when he was looking for his “foil” – he overturned bins and broke a window in the house and in a car parked outside.
He was said to have lost control because he was without heroin and had been hoping to find traces of heroin on the old foil.
Ceri Evans, defending, said that he committed most of his offences because of the need for drugs. It was getting out of control.
He had not been offered drugs rehabilitation in the past, she said, and suggested that he would be suitable for a suspended sentence so that he could be assisted.
Probation officer Lisa Harris said that the defendant was at one stage using four bags of heroin a day and was offending to fund his habit.
Heroin had been an issue for him for a number of years.
His day to day life was going out to “make money” by committing petty thefts to fund his heroin misuse, she explained.
He was at a stage in his life, now over 30, where he wanted to make changes and in interview had asked for support to enable him to do so.
http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/172210/heroin-addict-from-wrexham-funded-habit-through-petty-crime.aspx
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