South Tyneside thief fires X-rated abuse at judge after being put behind bars
A South Shields thief fired an X-rated assault at the judge after being put behind bars.
A South Tyneside thief who returned to crime just three days after being spared jail swore at a judge after she finally put him behind bars.
Furious Christopher Rutherford, 43, shouted, “12 weeks for one shop theft?” – then used a four-letter word towards District Judge Zoe Passfield.
She had in fact jailed him for a total of 30 weeks after he appeared in the dock to admit two new shoplifting charges.
Rutherford, of St Aidan’s Road, The Lawe, South Shields, pinched two six-in-one jump car starter kits, totalling £206, from retailer Halfords in South Shields on Wednesday, June 10.
He returned to the same store five days later and made off with one item of the same product, valued at £103.
His second offence put him in breach of a suspended sentence, imposed three days before, on Friday, June 12.
On that occasion, Rutherford had walked free from a court after being given an 18-week jail term, suspended for two years, also for theft.
At South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court, he initially denied two new counts of theft from a shop.
But moments later, after being shown store CCTV footage, he changed his pleas to guilty.
Judge Passfield activated in full the suspended sentence and jailed Rutherford for 12 consecutive weeks for the second theft from Halfords.
Prosecutor Paul Anderson said only: “£309 is the loss, judge.”
Jack Lavelle, defending, told the hearing: “He is currently facing quite serious issues in his life.
“The address he has given is a caravan. He says that when he is more stable with accommodation, he doesn’t come to the attention of the police.
“He is on a suspended sentence order. It was imposed on June 12. One of his latest offences pre-dates it, and other one was a few days afterwards.
“It’s an offence that puts him in breach of his suspended sentence order.”
Jailing Rutherford, Judge Passfield said: “This is your tenth offence this year.
“You’ve had custody, you’ve had fines, you’ve had a suspended sentence order, yet you are here again.
“This offence was three days after being given the suspended sentence. There’s nothing to say it’s unjust to activate that sentence.”