A PROLIFIC shoplifter has avoided jail despite breaking a suspended sentence order by stealing two joints of beef.
Scott Goodman, who was living in Evesham at the time of the offence, was caught taking £17 worth of meat from the town’s Co-operative store on the morning of April 6.
The store manager had concerns over the 34-year-old after he watched him on CCTV constantly looking back towards the tills from the chiller section, Worcester Magistrates Court heard last Friday (August 22).
He went out on the shop floor to confront Goodman but as he did the defendant ran towards the exit and jumped over the barrier out of the store.
CCTV confirmed Goodman stole the beef, and he was identified and subsequently arrested by police.
In July last year he was given a 25-week prison sentence, suspended for 24 months, for similar offences and was ordered to complete a Drug Rehabilitation Requirement (DRR).
Goodman, who now lives in Worcester, admitted to missing his DRR appointments on two separate occasions.
Defending solicitor Mark Lister said: “His current order related to offences which occurred on July 11 and June 13 last year.
“What you can draw from this is since July this is the first time he has committed any offence and that of course is important because what I seek to persuade you is that it would be unjust to activate his sentence.
“One minor offence of shop lifting in over a year now and which in itself was committed over four months ago at a time he was at a low end.
“He has, since that happened, kept himself out of trouble when it could have been easy to simply throw in the towel at that stage and commit more offences.
“Things have moved on significant since these offences occurred.”
Magistrates made his existing suspended sentence more onerous by adding another six-month DRR, while he was handed six weeks custody, suspended for 15 months, with six months supervision for the new offence.
