Sunderland man stole Lego sets to help pay-off drug debt
An offender who pinched Lego sets from a toyshop and committed nine other thefts to pay off a drug debt has been jailed for 32 weeks.
Lee Forbister, 52, made off with stock from retailer Smyths’ branch at the city’s Hylton Retail Park on Friday, November 14.
Nine days later, Forbister, of Southwick Road, Southwick, stole £300 of goods from Morrisons’ store at Seaburn.
In doing so, he breached a court order excluding him from the outlet, prosecutor Paul Anderson told South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.
Forbister pleaded guilty to two counts of theft from a shop and one of breaching an exclusion order – and asked for a further eight thefts to be taken into account.
Mr Anderson said Forbister was accused of stealing £300 of Lego but it was accepted the value of the goods was significantly less.
He added: “The offences are fairly straightforward, he admits these matters in interview. His difficulty is his record.
“What he says about the incident at the toy store is that he takes three or four boxes of Lego.
“The CCTV supports that, and he would plead on that basis, which is accepted by the crown. There’s the breach of the exclusion order and ten thefts.
“From the record, there’s a community order from last year and suspended sentences of 16 weeks and four weeks.”
Angus Westgarth, defending, said: “He tells me that he lost the support of the Probation Service in October.
“These offences spring up and are committed left, right and centre. They were committed due to a substantial drug debt.
“It’s to his credit that he has pleaded guilty to these.”
Forbister committed some of his crimes while subject to two suspended prison sentences and a community order.
District Judge Zoe Passfield jailed him 16 weeks for each theft, to run concurrently to each other, and to two weeks concurrent for the breach.
She activated both suspended sentences in full, with the May sentence being for 16 consecutive weeks and that of August for four concurrent weeks.
The judge revoked his community order, imposed for three earlier thefts, and jailed him for four weeks for each, to run concurrently to each other and to the other sentences.