Prolific shoplifter who failed to follow court's community order is sent down by magistrates

Mark Robert Preece of Farm Lodge Grove, in Malinsgate, Telford, was sent down by magistrates in Kidderminster on Monday after they revoked the community order and re-sentenced him for a total of 17 offences.

Preece had been sentenced in August last year for multiple acts of shoplifting including four packs of cheese and a packet of white tac, razors and a charger from Home Bargains, two packs of sirloin steaks, a pack of rump steak and a crate of cheese, to the value of £76.25, from a Telford Co-op.

Bottles of wine and other alcohol from stores including the Co-op and Spar shops in Telford were also a target. He also stole food, including hot dogs and sausage rolls from the Co-op.

Preece had also been sentenced for damaging a PVC front door and wooden gate in Kidderminster on June 6 last year, and for having 4.12 grams of the class A drug diamorphine in Telford on August 15.

He had also been convicted of assaulting a woman on July 17 last year.

Magistrates were told that Preece had failed to turn up at probation appointments on November 2, 2023 and February 12, 2024 and failing to provide a reasonable excuse in time. He admitted the breach on Monday .

Magistrates decided to send Preece to prison for 15 weeks because the offending was so serious. They heard he has a "low level of compliance with his community order, lost touch with probation and failed to make them aware of his whereabouts."

They were also told that he has "significant antecedents for similar offending and had failed to engage with rehabilitative treatment.