Booze thief who 'terrorised' Leeds Sainsbury's avoids jail due to leniency of the laws
Judge concedes that sentence had to be suspended
A brazen booze thief who “terrorised” staff and customers at a shop has avoided being locked up because of new, relaxed rules.
Reece Freeman entered the Sainsbury’s Local in Yeadon multiple times a day and walked out with armfuls of goods, Leeds Crown Court was told.
The 24-year-old admitted 15 shop-theft offences, largely from the Queensway convenience shop.
The court heard that staff were fed-up of a lack of action taken against him, despite repeatedly reporting his crimes.
He had also stolen booze from Aldi and Morrisons with the value totalling hundreds.
Freeman admitted criminal damage after smashing the window at Aldi with plank of wood, possessing a bladed article after he was found carrying a knife on his arrest and breach of a restraining order.
He carried out his stealing spree throughout April and May, prosecutor Jennifer Gatland told the court.
Freeman, of Tennyson Street, Guiseley, appeared in court over a video link from HMP Leeds.
Mitigating, Lydia Carroll said that due to a change in his medication, he was “more determined than previously” to turn his life around.
The court was told that He grew up in care in “difficult and chaotic” circumstances and has bipolar disorder.
The judge, Recorder Angharad Davies, told him: “I accept at face value that you want to turn your life around. Drink and drug problems are clearly behind your offending.”
She gave him a 12-month sentence, but due to the relaxed rules to ease overcrowding in prison, judges are being encouraged to suspended all sentences of such length.
She suspended his sentence for two years, ordered he complete a 12-month drug-rehabilitation requirement, a 90-day alcohol-abstinence monitoring requirement and 24 months’ work with probation.