A prolific Gloucester shop thief has been jailed and banned from retail premises.
Tavoy Weston, 33, of Worcester Street, Gloucester, admitted nine charges of theft and one of obstructing a police constable when he appeared at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court on Thursday, 11th February 2021.
We have previously written guides on both of these offences, which readers may find of interest (theft guide and obstructing or resisting a police constable guide).
Weston was subject to a 6-month suspended sentence when he hit Gloucester city centre on his latest thieving spree.
Prior to the hearing he had 12 previous convictions for 38 offences, including burglary, shop theft and breaching orders imposed by the court.
Alexis Brown, prosecuting, outlined the circumstances of the offences, which took place between 22nd November 2020 and 18th January 2021.
"Weston and his partner would enter a chosen store, select a number of goods and leave the stores without making any attempt to pay", said Ms Brown.
"The items stolen include chocolate, jeans and other items of clothing, joints of meat and beauty products.
"It was only when he asked to contact his partner that the police realised who she was and that he had given the officer a false name."
On a single day, 7th December 2021, the thief entered Home Bargains and stole £96 worth of chocolate, before heading to Marks and Spencer and emptying a rail containing £395 worth of jeans.
In total he took more than £800 worth of goods from various stores across the city.
Ms Brown asked the bench to consider imposing a new Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) on Weston, which would ban him from entering retail premises in Gloucestershire.
Lee Mott, mitigating, made no objection to the imposition of a CBO.
He told the court: "Weston goes on spates of shoplifting when he is short of money. He doesn't struggle with addiction, but struggles with his finances. When he finds himself at rock bottom he resorts to shoplifting.
"If Weston is not sentenced to a custodial term today, he has a job waiting for him for a company he has previously worked for. This will put the motivation for his offending behind him being in employment."
Magistrates decided the offences in totality were so serious that only a custodial sentence was appropriate. They also decided to activate his suspended sentence.
Sally Ward, Presiding Justice, said: "We feel that you have failed to put into practice what you learned while you were with probation and reoffended again very soon after the suspended sentence order was made."
Weston was sentenced to 4 months' custody for the new offences, to run consecutively with 3 months' custody from the activation of his suspended sentence.
He was ordered to pay Marks and Spencer £395 in compensation.
Magistrates also made a CBO banning Weston from retail premises, other than a nominated convenience store and pharmacy, across Gloucestershire for a period of three years.
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