WATCH: Burglar fined just £50 after smashing shop with wheelie bin and fighting mannequin
A shop owner is fuming over a "joke" sentence for a burglar who left him £5,000 out of pocket after throwing a wheelie bin through his window and stealing clothes.
CCTV footage of a smash-and-grab raid shows a man hurling the bin at the window of Inocencia in Castle Gates, Shrewsbury, before clambering through the hole he smashed and taking designer clothes.
The chaotic video, which shows the crime taking place in the early hours of Friday, January 22, also shows the man stealing a hat off the mannequin's head, before calamitously dragging the dummy out of the shop, almost falling over.
Around £4,000 worth of damage was caused to the shop and £1,000 worth of clothes went missing.
Last week at Kidderminster Magistrates Court, 37-year-old James Morgan pleaded guilty to one charge of burglary with intent to steal and one of criminal damage to a police vehicle. There was no additional criminal damage charge relating to the shop.
Morgan, whose address was given as The Exchange Hotel, Bellstone, Shrewsbury, was fined £50 and ordered to pay £100 in compensation. He was also ordered to carry out 20 rehabilitation activity days.
Inocencia boss Shezz Sivri was not happy with the result from court.
"You get more than that for doing 35 in a 30," he said. "It's a bit of a joke. Even if someone gets caught, there's no sort of deterrent.
"£1,000 of clothes have gone missing. They haven't been found. If someone can get away with taking them and causing that sort of damage, and that's the sentence, what's stopping them?
"When we saw the footage we knew exactly who it was. It's just frustrating.
"It's not just about the burglary on the night. Our shop front is important for advertising and we've not been able to use it since. People are probably going past thinking we're closed."
A West Mercia Police spokeswoman said: "We have no further investigations ongoing in relation to this matter."
Inocencia was previously burgled in October 2019, another occasion when a dummy was stolen as well as expensive designer clothes.
In a cruel twist of irony, the display in question was dubbed the "Shrewsbury Weekend Offender", and featured clothing with a prison uniform twist including a shirt with HMP Shrewsbury written on it.
The shop has been in business since 1999.
