Malton shop and bicycle thief sentenced at York court

Lee Coggins, 47, wanted to plead guilty to stealing a bicycle and five shop thefts when he was sentenced for threatening a person with a cricket bat, his solicitor Graham Parkins said.

But although he knew he had committed the offences, and police had questioned him about them, he had not yet been charged or summonsed with any of them – so they didn’t appear on any police or prosecution service computer system available to lawyers in court, and therefore the court couldn’t deal with them.

He was given a 12-month community order for the cricket bat offence alone on October 10.

Nearly seven weeks later, on November 25, Coggins of Chandlers’ Wharf, Malton, was brought before the court in custody, having been charged for some of the thefts and summonsed for the rest.

He pleaded guilty to all six.

Deputy district judge Gary Garland told him: “It is fair to say you have been a one-man crime wave in your time.”

However, had all the offences been sentenced at the same time on October 10, the sentence would have been the same.

He revoked the October community order and made a new 12-month community order for all offences, to start on November 25, with a six-month alcohol treatment programme, 20 days’ rehabilitative activities and ordered him to pay £90 compensation to the owner of the bicycle.

The judge told him: “I’m trying to give you a clean slate here, if you behave yourself, do your community order, to get back on track.”

Mark Haigh, prosecuting, said together the items stolen by Coggins in July, August and October were valued at £666.

Coggins pleaded guilty to stealing a woman’s bicycle on July 10 in Malton, groceries worth £263 on July 23 and £199 on August 18, both from Tesco’s in Scarborough, groceries worth £38.45 from a Co-op store in Whitby, groceries worth £60 from Morrison’s in Malton and £14.89 from a garage forecourt shop.

The court heard he has 94 previous convictions and began his criminal career in 1996.