A prolific shoplifter has been banned from a Hove Co-Op after pleading guilty to a string of thefts.
Robert Cole, of North Road, Brighton admitted stealing meat and wine worth more than £200 from Co-ops in St James’s Street, Brighton and Western Road, Hove, on seven dates in January and February this year.
He also admitted stealing a North Face Zaneck Jacket from Cotswolds Outdoor in Western Road, Brighton on 24 January and a hat and parka coat worth £120 from Mountain Warehouse in Queens Road, Brighton on 3 March.
When sentencing him at Brighton Magistrates Court on March 11, district judge Tessa Szagun told him he has a “flagrant disregard for people and their property”.
She gave Cole, 37, a total of nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered him to pay the Co Op compensation.
He is now also banned from the Co Op in Western Road, Hove for six months and has to carry out 25 rehabilitation activity days.
Cole was jailed in 2011 for 12 weeks for stealing wine and steaks from the Co Op in Church Road, Hove. He was caught on CCTV, and Sussex Police identified him from that footage.
When he returned to the store, staff recognised him from a shoplifting hotlist sent round by the Brighton and Hove Crime Reduction Partnership when he returned to the supermarket.
In 2016, police twice put out wanted appeals for him after he breached the terms of his release licence following another spell inside for theft and possessing an offensive weapon.
Lives on North Road. Clearly thats the supported accommodation building. Makes you wonder really why we keep getting people living at these addresses and committing crimes.
Sad reality of our cities offering to those living with homelessness, genuinely supported people surely would not act this way? A lot are stuck in a rut.
Its sad I hear so many stories of historic sexual abuse cases going to police and most never get to court. Loads of human victims of crime nothing done. Yet these one are getting to court. When will we deal with the underlying social and societal issues?
This is Britain today, its a huge mess. Tory Britain, it will only get worse! It is like the 80’s all over again here in Brighton and Hove,
Banned from the Co-Op in Western Road for six months? Hilarious! Ordered to pay the Co-Op compensation? Fat chance of that happening, while he is free to enter all the other supermarkets in the city.
We have labour shortages apparently, yet this cretin is living in supported accommodation costing a small fortune and still feels the need to act in this way. Being ex military myself they really should bring back national service for 6 month if your not in work or education for over a year.
It would sort a lot of people’s lives / mental health by give them a purpose.
We have so many people in this country who don’t work and expect life for free and then in return contribute nothing back.
That North Road building needs to be shut down, it just enables these people by grouping them all up together like that. That’s where most of the beggers live.
I agree up to a point, Dave, but is it really a good idea to teach people like this to kill?
Discipline, yes, but the military?
What’s needed is something that will provide military-style discipline, but without the weaponry aspect.