3 days ago
Jail for visitor who 'had no explanation' for stealing from city store
A VISITOR to Carlisle who stopped off in the city could offer no explanation for why he stole goods worth more than £200 from a local store.
At the time when he committed the offence during his visit to the Newtown Road branch of B&M, 41-year-old Antonio Gabriel Maldonado Rueda was under the threat of a suspended jail term, the city's Rickergate court heard.
The defendant admitted theft.
Prosecutor Diane Jackson said the defendant stole various goods, including pain killers, leaving the store after making no attempt to pay for the goods he took.
Their total value was £214, she said. 'He was stopped as he left the store,' said Mrs Jackson.
The court heard that Rueda – following the proceedings with the help of a Spanish interpreter – had five previous offences on his record. In March, magistrates in Wales gave him a 16-week jail term for similar offending.
This was suspended for two years and was thus in force when he committed the Carlisle offence.
Lauren Heasley, for Rueda, told the court: 'He apologises for offending on Saturday. He'd been travelling from his home to Glasgow.
'He stopped off in Carlisle and he can't provide an explanation for his actions. He was not in financial difficulty and had the means to pay.
"It seems that for whatever reasons, while he was in the B&M store, temptation got the better of him. Without any sophistication, he sought to remove those items without paying.'
She added that Rueda was willing to work with the Probation Service.
Deputy District Judge Roger Lowe noted how the defendant was serving a suspended sentence for three previous shoplifting offences in March after appearing at Somerset and Avon Magistrates earlier that month for yet more shoplifting.
The law states that in such circumstances – when there is further similar offences - a suspended sentence should be activated unless it would be unjust to do so.
'I can't find any grounds on which I can say it would be unjust,' said the judge. He jailed the defendant, of Castlehey, Skelmersdale, for 14 weeks.
