Prison for ‘nuisance' shoplifter who stole Pokemon cards from Mansfield

Anthony Dargue, aged 46, admitted helping himself to £100 of the playing cards from Tesco on December 1,and £43 of items from TK Maxx on December 4 and 7, Nottingham Crown Court was told.

The thefts put him in breach of a three month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, which was imposed in October last year for shoplifting £299 of goods. He told police he stole to buy food because he was hungry, and has 26 previous convictions for 57 offences.

Daniel Scothern, mitigating, said: "It is somewhat a sad case in my submission. In some ways it is a never ending cycle of offending and prison."

Dargue has already served the equivalent of a three-month sentence and urged the judge to keep the sentence as short as possible.

On Wednesday, Judge John Sampson told him: "You were given an opportunity to show that you can change. When you were given a suspended sentence you threw that back in the face of the court. There really is no solution for you except to keep locking you up."

Dargue shouted: "If I want to eat I have got to steal. People get locked up for begging."

Describing him as a "public nuisance", the judge said: "I wish my sentencing powers were greater as I would lock you up for much longer. Ultimately it is your choice to keep offending."

He activated the three-month sentence and added two months for the new offences to run consecutively, making a total of five months.