Scratch Card Shenanigans
For one intrepid thief, it seems a lucky break of a vast fortune just wasn’t on the cards, because Police have recently arrested a Shillington man for stealing £735 worth of scratch cards from a local shop.
Christopher Harris, 31 from Woodmer Close, Shillington, took the cards from his local village shop after he noticed the owner wasn’t keeping an eye on the store.
Prosecutor Jason Wolf described Mr Harris’s actions to Bedford Magistrates Court.
He told them how whilst out walking his dog one morning Mr Harris noticed the store’s owner had disappeared into the backroom for a few minutes. It was from here that he launched his plan of action.
Between February 14th and February 18th, Harris went to the store between eight and nine times to steal the popular £5 scratch cards whilst the owner was unaware in the other room.
Harris would simply cash in the winning cards and throw the losing ones in a nearby bin.
However, he wasn’t winning particularly much from his five-finger-discount shopping spree, his total profit from the cards totalled up as only £40.
Harris’s downfall eventually came about when he was repeatedly seen on the store CCTV removing the cards from the counter.
Police launched an enquiry with Harris as their main suspect; he was quickly apprehended shortly after he was spotted on CCTV prolifically pinching the cards.
However, Mr Harris’s defender, a Miss Sarah Colby has said that Harris’s actions were not down to greed but because he was suffering from a mounting debt that he was struggling to pay off. She also brought the courts attention to the fact that he currently shares a three-bedroom house with his mother but they were hit hard by the bedroom tax because of their spare room.
She pleaded with the magistrate saying her client: “Did it not out of greed but desperation.”
Harris has since decided to plead guilty to one charge of stealing from the store.
Bedford Magistrates Court have ordered him to pay over £735 back to the store as compensation for the scratch cards he stole.
Harris will also be serving an extensive community order for up to 18 months, which will involve a thinking skills workshop plus other programs.
Plus for the next three months, Harris will be under a strict curfew where he has to be indoors from 10pm until 6am.
