Jails are too full of rioters, judge tells supermarket thief

Steven Sutcliffe, 29, a star employee for Asda, deliberately failed to scan items of shopping his pals brought through his till, costing the store an estimated £10,000, a court heard.

But despite admitting 13 counts of theft amounting to around £4,000, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall felt compelled to suspend Sutcliffe’s eight-month jail sentence for 12 months.

Sentencing Sutcliffe, the judge said: “After the civil disturbances, every prison place is in high demand.”

Bradford Crown Court heard that on one occasion the supermarket worker charged a customer just £8.49 for around £200 of goods.

The scam was finally uncovered when store staff spotted Sutcliffe’s friend Stuart Hegney, 43, filling his trolley with expensive items.

The suspicious co-workers followed him to the till and saw Sutcliffe fail to charge the correct amount for the trolley-load of goods.

Sutcliffe admitted 13 counts of theft between December 31, 2010 and January 4 this year estimating the extent of the con as £4,000, but Asda said it could be as high as £10,000.

Sutcliffe was ordered to serve 200 hours of unpaid work in the community and ordered to pay Asda back £1,500.

The judge said: “I strongly hope they will go after you in the county court for the rest.”

Neil Clark, mitigating, said Sutcliffe, of Halifax, won his Asda store’s Employee of the Year award in 2010 for “customer service and going out of his way to help people”.

He said it was Sutcliffe’s kind nature which led him into the thefts, which he claimed had been started by Hegney when he was unable to pay for his goods in full.

The judge said: “You are of good character and have references that all of us would be very proud of. You have let down a lot of people.”

Hegney, also of Halifax, admitted being part of the theft on seven occasions and was given a community order for 12 months and ordered to take alcohol treatment for six months.