Kettering thief didn't learn his lesson

A Kettering thief went back to his old ways just weeks after a ‘terrifying’ first taste of being in an adult prison.

Leon Wykes was given a stark warning by a judge last month, who told him he would be jailed if he stole as much as a packet of wine gums.

The 22-year-old had his prison sentence suspended for 18 months after a court heard he’d had the ‘fear of God’ put into him when he spent time in custody on remand.

But just weeks after being freed from HMP Peterborough he found himself back in the same prison after stealing again.

Wykes, of no fixed address, was jailed for 13 months at Northampton Crown Court on Thursday (April 21) after a hearing was brought forward.

He held his head in his hands as prosecutor Quiana Fitzpatrick told the court of the two theft charges he had admitted.

On April 2 he went to Kettering’s Boots and took two bottles of perfume worth £98, putting them down his trousers and leaving. Five days later, on April 7, he stole an electric toothbrush from the town’s Morrisons.

Ms Fitzpatrick said: “He was clearly choosing things he can sell easily on the streets.”

The court heard he had been spared from prison on March 4 after a series of thefts, assaults on two shop workers and possession of a knife.

Mitigating, Liam Muir said Wykes had significant issues with drugs and alcohol and had been offered work in Northampton but had problems with transport and accommodation, leaving him stuck in a ‘revolving door’ system.

He said: "He knows his only real option is custody.

"He is someone who wants to do everything he can to get out clean.”

His Honour Judge Rupert Mayo told Wykes he would serve up to half of his 13-month sentence in custody and the remainder on licence.

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