Chain snatcher locked up for Cash Converters raid
Court loses patience with prolific thief
A known thief and drug addict has been locked up after he stealing an expensive piece of jewellery from a pawn shop.
Adam Wiechnicki grabbed the chain from Cash Converters in Wakefield city centre.
He was already on a suspended sentence to which he failed to comply, Leeds Crown Court heard.
The 35-year-old admitted theft of the chain, three counts of breach of the suspended sentence and one of failing to surrender to custody.
He appeared in court over a video link from HMP Leeds where he was being held on remand.
Prosecutor Jade Edwards said Wiechnicki walked into the Cash Converters on Kirkgate on the morning of August 27.
He asked a worker for a closer look at a £1,420 gold chain on display in a cabinet behind the counter.
He was handed the chain, spent a few moments looking at it, then fled.
Recognised by staff and caught on CCTV, Wiechnicki was later arrested.
He tested positive for cocaine and told officers he needed to steal to pay a debt to his drug dealer.
Ms Edwards said he was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 24 months in July last year, for perverting the course of justice.
He had hatched a plan to tell police that his girlfriend had been attacked by her ex boyfriend who had just been released from prison.
As part of that sentence, he was given 200 hours of unpaid work and 25 rehabilitation days.
The court heard he failed to complete the unpaid work appointments on three occasions.
Wiechnicki has 24 previous convictions for 54 offences, including 36 for theft.
Mitigating, Henry Fernandez said Wiechnicki’s partner was pregnant and he wanted to help raise their child.
He said it had been seven years since his last theft offence, but conceded he continued to struggle with drugs.
He added that Wiechnicki had remained abstinent from drugs while in prison.
The judge, Recorder Angharad Davies commented on the work put into the unpaid work, calling it “poor compliance” and “not very impressive”.
Ten months of that sentence was activated and he was given 13 weeks for the chain theft, to run concurrently, making a total of 10 months.