A man has been jailed after downing a bottle of sherry in front of a store security guard and saying: “Arrest me”.
Alan Wilde, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to theft at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court.
He was jailed after magistrates heard that he planned the offence in order to take advantage of the structure that the prison system gives him.
Wilde, who has over 100 convictions to his name, entered the Huddersfield town centre branch of Tesco on May 13.
He walked straight past the manager with the £7 bottle of sherry and headed towards the exit.
There he walked up to the security guard, drank the alcohol and then placed the bottle in front of him.
Linda Fowler, prosecuting, told magistrates: “He said: ‘I won’t pay for this, I want arresting’.
“He said that he was sleeping on the streets and didn’t want to start taking drugs again so he’d taken the sherry for the purpose of being arrested.”
Magistrates heard that last April the 44-year-old was handed a suspended sentence together with a drugs rehabilitation requirement.
He went to rehab in Manchester but was later removed because of a relationship that he had formed with a female there.
Paul Blanchard, mitigating, said: “As a consequence he has lost his way in the world.
“He’s returned to the Kirklees area and here there’s temptations he doesn’t want to go back to.
“Mr Wilde deliberately goes up to the security guard and says arrest me.
“It was a deliberate and pre-planned theft.
“When you have somebody as experienced as Mr Wilde with the prison system he knows what he’s doing.
“He needs a shove in the right direction (this is provided by) incarceration and the structure it gives him.”
Magistrates sent Wilde to custody for 16 weeks.
Click here to take you back to more Huddersfield news .
Want to read, watch and hear more? You can download the FREE Examiner Apple App here , the FREE Examiner Android App here or you can view the paper as an e-edition on your Apple, Android or Kindle device by clicking here
To follow us on Twitter click here
