Farmfoods, Halliwell, staff threatened by shoplifter

Sarfaraz Patel, 34, stole from a branch of Farmfoods on Halliwell Road while drunk on Saturday November 25 last year.

Bolton Crown Court heard how he escaped with £36 worth of bottles of Lenor Unstoppables after threatening an assistant manager who tried to confront him.

Prosecutor Sophie Kenny said: “He went after Mr Patel and as he approached him could see the items under his arm.”

She added: “He says Mr Patel pulled out what he thought was a knife.

“He said: ‘I could see the silver blade; I thought it was a knife.’”

The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

Patel then ran off with the stolen items but was arrested soon after.

Police found the pair of scissors on him and when brought before Wigan and Leigh Magistrates Court, Patel confessed to threatening a person with an offensive weapon in a public place.

He also pleaded guilty to theft from a shop.

Dressed in a black coat and grey jumper, Patel looked on from the dock as Ms Kenny read out a statement from the victim he had threatened with scissors.

She told the court how the assistant manager had been “left feeling shocked” and was aware one of his co-workers had been to school with Patel.

Callum Ross, defending, pointed out that despite his threats and his addition to crack cocaine and alcohol Patel did not have a violent record.

He also said that with two previous convictions for unrelated driving offences, the 34-year-old was “relatively lightly convicted.”

Mr Ross said: “It is perhaps to the defendant’s credit that by his own admission he was intoxicated at the time of his offending.”

He added that Patel, of Camrose Gardens in Halliwell, had used drugs and alcohol “as a crutch” but that a suspended sentence would remind him that he was “walking on eggshells.”

But if he was not to jail the shoplifter, Judge Nicholas Clarke KC asked “how will I punish him? It's all very well giving him all this handholding, but how will he make amends for what he has done.”

Addressing the defendant directly, Judge Clarke added: “Shopkeepers can be expected to be protected from thugs like the likes of you.

“Shoplifting has become an epidemic and it is targeting hard working people who are providing a service to the community.”

He added: “It is appalling, it is becoming a daily occurrence, and something needs to be done about it.”

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But Judge Clarke said he felt a curfew would be a better way of dealing with Patel than jail time so that “you can be locked up at your family’s expense, rather than that of the taxpayer.”

He said: “It would cost the taxpayer a huge amount of money to put you in prison for what would be a short amount of time.”

Judge Clarke sentenced Patel to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months and curfewed him between 8pm and 7am for four months.

He also ordered him to complete a 12-month drug rehabilitation requirement with 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

Before Patel left the dock, Judge Clarke told him: “It’s in your hands now, you need to behave yourself.”