[A] THIEF who took a knife into a Carlisle supermarket to aid his shoplifting has been locked up for six months.
Davy Gilchrist, 35, first visited ASDA at the city’s St Nicholas Gate retail park on October 6. Carlisle Crown Court heard that with “some effort”, Gilchrist removed a security tag from Bluetooth speakers, which he hid under his jacket and stole.
He returned the following day to commit a copycat theft, this time bringing with him a Stanley knife which he used to sever another security label. Staff who saw the blade, which Gilchrist put into his pocket, were so concerned that they called 999.
The thief was arrested and sentenced at the crown court today (MON) by Recorder Philip Curran. Gilchrist, of Oakleigh Way, Carlisle, had admitted two thefts from ASDA and possession of a bladed article in public, along with another shoplifting crime committed in July.
Having been sentenced in 2015 for possession of an offensive weapon – a claw hammer – Gilchrist found himself liable to a two-strike six-month minimum jail term.
Recorder Curran imposed a five-month prison sentence for the knife crime, adding an extra, consecutive month for the shop thefts.
“It is the risk of people being confronted by staff and then something terrible going wrong,” he told Gilchrist.
