A nuisance shoplifter who stole from a Huddersfield shopping complex he was banned from has been jailed for more than nine months.
Calvin Smith targeted Boots in Great Northern Retail Park three times just weeks after being handed the Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) after committing a string of shop thefts and assaulting a security guard.
This banned him from going to the Leeds Road premises for two years but he was back there 10 weeks later – and stole electrical goods worth more than £800.
Kirklees magistrates said they had no option but to jail him for this recent spate of thefts, committed because he had not received his benefits for a year, because he “breached practically every court sentence.”
Smith was given the CBO after he took more than £1,000 worth of goods from several stores at the retail park.
The 32-year-old also assaulted a TK Maxx security guard by throwing orange juice over him when he attended at the Huddersfield court to give evidence against his girlfriend.
He was jailed for 20 months in April and banned from going to the retail park or its grounds as part of his CBO.
But between June 25 and July 13 he stole from the Boots store three times, stealing electrical goods including epilators and replacement electric toothbrush heads.
Magistrates were told that Smith, of Shearings Cross Gardens in Fartown, targeted the store twice in just one day.
He returned to the store after taking goods in the morning and hid some products down his trousers before trying to leave.
He was detained outside, the stolen items were dropped during the struggle and police were called.
Smith breached the order in July by entering the same store. He was told to leave by a member of staff and did so without taking anything.
He was recalled to prison after breaching his licence conditions following his release from his latest stint in custody.
His solicitor Zara Begum said that he had an issue with drugs but this was not the reason for the recent thefts.
She explained that he had been in receipt of Universal Credit for 17 years but these were suspended last year due to changes in the benefits system.
Miss Begum said: “He has been without any benefits for nearly a year and committed these offences to get by on a day to day basis and be able to put the gas and electric on in his flat.
“He’s appeared in court many times previously when the offences have been because of drug use but his time it’s because he had no income and was struggling in relation to a change in his benefits and not being paid.
“He was caught at a place where he shouldn’t have been but there’s no suggestion that he’s caused any alarm or distress to any persons.”
Miss Begum told magistrates that her client’s housing benefit has also been stopped causing him ‘extreme worry” as his landlord has instigated court proceedings against him for not paying his rent.
Smith pleaded guilty to three counts of shop theft and two offences of breaching his Criminal Behaviour Order.
Chairman of the bench Richard Fearnley told him: “You are a prolific offender and all manner of offences have been tried in the past and failed.
“You’ve breached practically everything that’s been put before you and for that reason there’s only one option and that’s a custodial sentence.
“If your criminal record continues like this, this is how you will be dealt with on each and every occasion.”
Smith was jailed for a total of 38 weeks and will have to pay £115 victim surcharge upon his release.
