MAGISTRATES were so shocked to hear a thief still owed more than £2,000 to the courts from past offending they ordered he pay his latest punishment directly to the courts instead of deducting it from benefits.
Court regular Connor Weston was back at Worcester Magistrates Court on Thursday, (September 8), and admitted one count of making off without making payment.
Waleed Khan, prosecuting, said police were called to the BP garage in Whittington Road at around 1.30am on April 2 this year.
The prosecutor said the cashier had been working that night and a tanker arrived to deliver petrol.
Many of the pumps had signs to say out of fuel - April 2 being a date when there was a nationwide shortage, and the garage had a no cans rule in place.
The cashier authorised the pump without looking at the person, distracted by the tanker, Mr Khan told magistrates.
"He was quite busy," the prosecutor said.
"He noticed someone was filling two cans. He grabbed one off him (Weston), and he had filled two already."
Connor Weston had a "lengthy record" magistrates told
The prosecutor said Weston then lifted his t-shirt to show the cashier the black handle of a knife he was carrying, before picking up a full can and running off.
Mr Khan said the 24-year-old, of Canterbury Road, Worcester, had a "lengthy record" of previous offences including making off without making payment.
Mark Turnbull, defending, explained Weston had pleaded guilty on a basis that he did not have the knife or pretended he had one, and that he did not take any cans off the forecourt.
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Although the plea was not accepted by the crown, chairman of the magistrate's bench Charles Townsend, said they could sentence anyway.
Mr Turnbull asked for his client to be dealt with by a fine.
The chairman said magistrates were open to that, but when it was revealed Weston had £2,200 outstanding to the courts the chairman questioned if it would be a suitable punishment.
The chairman asked probation service representative Jayne Stewart if they could order unpaid work as punishment instead, but she replied that he was unsuitable.
After their deliberations, the chairman ordered £75 compensation to be paid to the garage, £50 to the cashier and told him to pay court costs of £135.
The chairman said: "You owe £2,000 to the courts, we have to find a punishment that is fair and just.
"The £260 (total) you will pay at £10 a fortnight in addition to what is being deducted (from benefits).
"This punishment has got to have some meaning."
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