Lotto winner who scooped £100k spared jail for stealing £15k worth of trainers

A delivery driver who once won £100,000 on the lottery has avoided jail after he stole boxes of trainers worth £15,000 from FootAsylum.

David Swatman, 43, from Manchester, won the huge sum on a scratchcard in 2018, saying he would use the money to follow his beloved Liverpool FC.

But between August and September 2020, he repeatedly stole boxes of shoes he was delivering between FootAsylum's north Wales depot to Manchester, before handing them over to a third party.

The company began an investigation when it discovered on 9 September, 2020, that there was a discrepancy in the number of boxes that were leaving the Broughton depot and the number arriving in Manchester.

Five boxes and two bags full of trainers never arrived and a review of CCTV revealed there had been an "unauthorised stop" on Bury Old Road while Swatman was at the wheel when the items were transferred into another vehicle, prosecutor Daniel Lister told Manchester Crown Court.

The company's investigation uncovered further unauthorised stops on 22 August and 2 September when more boxes were handed over and placed in another vehicle.

Police arrested Swatman and he admitted the thefts of what he estimated were about 22 boxes, each one containing trainers worth up to £1,000.

The court heard how Swatman had memorised an "encryption lock" on the vehicles to carry out his crimes.

Swatman, now of Richmond Street, Keighley, admitted a single charge of theft covering stolen items worth £15,450.

The court was told Swatman had 22 sets of previous convictions covering 44 offences, including a drink drive offence said to have been committed shortly after the FootAsylum thefts.

Max Saffman, defending, said his client was now working part-time as a window fitter earning about £300 per week, although he hoped to be working full-time soon.

Judge Field told Swatman: "You used your privileged position to steal goods from your delivery vehicle for the benefit of others... It was a breach of the trust placed in you by your employers."

The judge said there had been a "degree of sophistication", although Swatman had not acted alone and the goods had "plainly been stolen to order".

Field said Swatman had shown "genuine remorse" and handed him a 20-month jail sentence suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to carry out five days of rehabilitation activity, to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £425 prosecution costs.