News / Five months jail for string of offences
A MAN whose string of offences including stealing from three Lerwick shops and driving a motorbike while unfit through drink or drugs has been jailed for five months.
Lerwick Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday that 41 year old Simon Edwards, of Hoofields, Lerwick, committed the offences, all in the last three months of 2014, while on bail.
On 20 October he stole a hooded top from Cee & Jays, going on to thieve two gift sets from Boots Chemist on 17 December and then steal four computer games from Tesco four days later.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie outlined how the “clearly intoxicated” Edwards was apprehended by police after crashing the motorbike, which belonged to a friend, on 26 November.
At Lerwick Police Station he repeatedly refused to provide a blood specimen without reasonable excuse because he “clearly wasn’t wanting anyone to find out what that might reveal”, the fiscal said.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client, who had been in custody since just before Christmas, realised he had to change his behaviour.
The thefts occurred at a time when his life was “unravelling”, and by his own admission Edwards is getting “too old for this”.
Sheriff Philip Mann said his criminal record was “littered with offences of dishonesty”, while in at least one instance his motivation for committing theft was to provide a gift for his girlfriend rather than due to a lack of money.
In addition to being sentenced to a total of five months behind bars, backdated to 22 December, Edwards was disqualified from driving for two years and placed on a one-year supervision order.
Once released from prison, he will also have to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work to compensate for his failure to pay off eight separate fines totalling in excess of £1,500.
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