A PROLIFIC offender from Warrington has avoided going back to jail.
Dale Simpson has been handed a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to a string of offences.
The 35-year-old has admitted to stealing a laptop, private documents, breaching a previous court order and two counts of vehicle interference.
However, District Judge Edward John Barnett opted not to send him to jail in view of recent positive changes in his life.
He said: “Given your history I fully expected to be sending you to prison.
“I’m giving you a chance because of the progress you have made, but the next court won’t.”
Simpson was sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment in April after stealing bank cards and using them to by vapes, headphones and other goods.
This follows a 24-week sentence handed to him in July 2023 for stealing close to £3,500 worth of tools from parked vans and before that, a 20-week sentence for breaking into a car and stealing a bank card.
During the sentencing for his latest crime spree, at Warrington Magistrates Court on Wednesday (October 30), a probation officer said he committed the offences to fund his gambling and drug addictions.
Among the string of four offences was one charge of theft by finding, relating to an incident in Prestatyn, Denbighshire, on May 26, 2023.
Simpson took a bag containing a HP laptop, two wireless computer mice, two hard drives, stationary, a book of handwritten notes and 20 pages of handwritten private vehicle service documents.
He also admitted to two counts of ‘vehicle interference’, which involves tampering with the vehicle with the aim of stealing it, a part of it or anything inside it.
Simpson also breached a community behaviour order handed to him by Liverpool Crown Court in May 2023 by wearing a head/face covering in Warrington on December 15, 2023.
Defending, Elizabeth Manning says Simpson ‘understands the seriousness of this offending’.
She explained that her client suffered a serious assault when he was 18, while working as a trainee teaching assistant.
This caused him to go on a ‘downward spiral’, resulting in a ‘pattern of offending’.
Ms Manning adds that the offences are ‘directly linked’ to funding his gambling addiction.
However, he has been engaging with counselling to address this, as well as the PTSD he suffered as a result of the assault.
Simpson is also now in secure accommodation, a stable relationship and has sorted himself voluntary work with a charity shop.
“He’s in the best position he has been in for a long time,” said Ms Manning.
Taking this all into account, Mr Barnett sentenced Simpson to 24 weeks, suspended for 12 months.
Simpson, of Museum Street in Warrington, must also complete 25 days of rehabilitation activity and pay £500 in compensation for the theft offence.
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