Student gets 16 months for looting Tesco

Conrad McGrath, 21, an English undergraduate at Aberystwyth University, was caught taking alcohol from a Tesco Express store in Oxford Street, Manchester.

McGrath, from Burton Street, Heaton Norris, Stockport, Greater Manchester, entered the store after a mob had forced open the shutters during disturbances on August 9.

He admitted to taking “three or four” bottles of an unknown alcohol which he dropped when police arrived at the scene.

Judge Robert Atherton told McGrath, who pleaded guilty to burglary at an earlier hearing: “You followed the example of others by squeezing under the shutter and seeing what you could steal.”

The defendant, wearing an Aberystwyth University T-shirt, nodded to the bench as Judge Atherton continued: “You came into the city despite the advice of friends and your mother.

“That was stupid and you should have known better.

“You are a student at university and you have thrown away a lot. It is a heavy price to pay for such behaviour.”

Prosecutors said CCTV caught a group of about 40 rioters attacking the Tesco store, forcing open external doors and an internal shutter.

So many people were pictured involved in the attack that it was “impossible” for the police to identify those who forced entry, Gavin Howie, for the prosecution, told the court when he opened the case yesterday.

Tesco said about £4,000 worth of stock had been stolen and £7,000 worth of damage was caused to the store that night.

McGrath was not among those who started the attack on the store, Mr Howie said, but was among four people squeezing through a gap in the shutters and carrying loot out of the shop when police arrived a short time later.

Daniel Gaskell, in mitigation, said the student’s family was “perplexed and bewildered” by his behaviour.

Another Tesco looter, apprentice bricklayer Lloyd Coudjoe, 20, of Quenby Street, Hulme, Manchester, was also jailed for 16 months.

He took one bottle of alcohol, the court heard.

Coudjoe was told by Judge Atherton: “You saw the events in Salford before going on to watch the attack on the Arndale Centre.

Alcoholic Thomas Downey, 48, who was caught helping himself to doughnuts from a Krispy Kreme shop, was also sent back to jail for another 16 months.

Hapless Downey, of no fixed address, had only been released from Strangeways prison at 7.30pm that Tuesday when he found himself in the midst of the rioting.

After attending a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, the serial offender proceeded to down a bottle of sherry and stumbled into the Krispy Kreme, in Piccadilly Gardens, which was unsecured after being attacked earlier.

He was almost immediately caught red-handed.