A thief fixed numberplates he found in scrapyards to his car using elastic bands so he could drive off without paying for petrol.
John Smith, 47, has never had a driving licence – but that didn’t stop him driving his Ford Fiesta and Mini Cooper to petrol stations on nine different occasions and filling up with £874.99 worth of petrol over six weeks.
He would then drive off without paying – known as bilking.
The spree started on Boxing Day last year, and targeted the BP garage on Kingsway in Hove, Shell on Brighton Road in Shoreham and BP on Brighton Road in Worthing.
Today, Lewes Crown Court heard he was eventually caught because one of the cars he used was quite distinctive.
Prosecuting, Chloe Hucker said: “He was identified through CCTV capturing his Ford Fiesta – there were some quite distinctive features on that – and of course he was caught on camera himself.”
She said the last time he drove off without paying on February 10, he was using a numberplate he had stolen from a car in Parklands, Shoreham, belonging to Hilary Seymour just an hour before.
Defending, Patrick Sharkey said: “He had a family crisis and moved out of his partner’s home.
“Unfortunately his partner was struggling with alcohol dependency and she went to his work and was abusive to the foreman which resulted in him losing his job.”
Smith, of The Ridgeway, Southwick, previously had 39 convictions for 81 offences including driving and dishonesty offences.
Sentencing, Martin Huseyin told Smith: “You are getting a bit old for all this, aren’t you?
“These aren’t very sophisticated offences but for the staff who probably had to deal with this over and over again it’s a complete pain and for someone to keep doing it and for someone with a long record of dishonesty, albeit with a big gap, it’s a huge shame.
“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that it was to do with your life coming a bit unstuck for you and getting into a financial crisis and reacting by going back to old habits.
“It strikes me that this is clearly something for which custody is well deserved. It’s a sort of a campaign.
“There’s no significant gain for any individual offence but it’s the fact you keep doing it and you hone your technique to get away with it.
“It’s extremely worrying when a number plate gets stolen because the victim doesn’t know what it’s going to be used for and they hear stories about people running up huge debts with parking and speeding fines.
18 months suspended because his British but if this was done by a forgnier it would be a minimum of several years behind bars. Welcome to Britain