A repeat Carlisle offender who stole from shops he was banned from entering has been jailed again by magistrates.
Last year, 29-year-old Kane David Queen was handed a five-year criminal behaviour order, which banned Queen from entering three city supermarkets and all stores affiliated to Carlisle’s Shopwatch scheme.
He has flouted the terms of this order several times since then, and admitted another breach — by going into a B&M Bargains outlet — in front of magistrates last Friday. Queen was granted conditional bail and told to reattend court next month.
But in the meantime he again returned to crime, stealing from stores at the St Nicholas Gate retail park, off London Road, on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
Queen stole vodka from ASDA and snatched two socket sets with a total value of £235 during separate visits to Halfords. He had earlier stolen a Bold gel twin pack from B&M on October 10.
Queen, of Lindisfarne Street, Carlisle, was brought back before city magistrates today when he admitted five thefts and three order breaches. Some stolen items had been recovered after he was detained by store staff, but a number could not be resold.
Magistrates heard Queen had stolen in order to pay off a drug debt having been taking cocaine following a bereavement.
Queen was handed a 12-week jail term. Lead magistrate Alan Cottingham told him: “You have been been given an order and you really have treated it as if it were just a piece of paper and it had no effect at all.
“Because of that, Carlisle shopkeepers, shops, have had to put up with an awful lot of aggravation.”
“This is persistent,” Mr Cottingham added of the offending. “There has got to come a time when you put a stop to it.”
After the order was imposed last December, PC Heidi Underwood, of Cumbria police, had said: “This order was a great outcome and is a useful tool to place restrictions on Queen to prevent further criminality and help protect business owners and local residents.
“I would encourage anyone who witnesses the terms of such a court order being broken to contact the police immediately.”
