A Hastings man convicted of regular thefts from shops has been handed a court order banning him from entering shops across Hastings and Rother.
At Brighton Magistrates Court on 4 January, Ryan Etherton, 42, of Willingdon Way, Hastings was given a sixteen week prison sentence, of which the magistrates have required him to serve four weeks in custody, having been found guilty of five shop lifting incidents at stores in which he stole goods, mostly meat and alcohol, worth almost £2,000.
Local police officers also applied for a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) and this was granted by magistrates upon his conviction,
The three-year CBO prohibits Etherton banned from entering stores including Jempsons, M&S, Co-Op, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Lidl, Aldi, TK Maxx, ESK and Debenhams, as he has previously stolen from those stores. In an attempt to prevent further offences Etherton was allowed to choose where he wanted to shop and was given a condition to only use that one supermarket, Asda in St. Leonards, but he must identify himself to security on entry and exit.
He is also banned from encouraging any other person to commit theft.
PC Richard Laws said; “Etherton has been committing these offences to feed a spiralling drug habit. The conditions of the CBO will not only go some way to preventing further offences, but a Supervision Order, also issued by the court, requires him to get help for those addictions.
“Meanwhile the CBO will give store staff some relief from his continual disruptive presence and offending. Hopefully the restrictive conditions of the CBO will also send a message to other offenders who may seek to commit similar thefts.”
