Yorkshire thieves, shoplifters and dealers in court this week
Every week, hundreds of criminals step through the front doors of the region's courts to face their fate.
Some are handed lengthy prison sentences, whereas others are given a second chance and made the subject of suspended sentence orders - meaning if they get into any more trouble they will find themselves behind bars - or community orders.
A whole range of sentences cover a whole range of crimes, with the judges across our courts delivering what they think will be best to serve the community outside the walls they work in.
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This week, a number of people convicted of theft, shoplifting and burglary have appeared in the docks at Leeds Crown Court, Bradford Crown Court, Sheffield Crown Court and York Crown Court.
You can find out more about them below.
Christopher Lister
Lister snuck into a Sheffield businesses to steal alcohol. He nicked spirits worth more than £1,000 between November 4 and 23 this year. On one occasion he stole 20 bottles of Jack Daniels and five bottles of spiced rum after crawling behind the bar in Cactus Jack. That haul was worth around £700.
He was on licence at the time and was identified through CCTV enquiries. Lister, 40, was jailed for ten months when he appeared at Sheffield Magistrates' Court.
Sarah Connor
Well-known Doncaster shoplifter Connor is back in prison after breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order. She was charged with six counts of theft after targeting One Stop stores in Doncaster. She took items including Lurpack butter, Yankee candles and packets of chocolate biscuits.
The thefts were a breach of the order she was made subject to in September, which prohibited her from entering any One Stop stores in the city. She has already been to prison twice so far this year for shoplifting offences and is now behind bars for another three months.
Nghia Tran and Puong Nguyen
Tran and Nguyen were locked up after officers discovered an industrial scale cannabis growing operation at units in Bradford this year.
A judge at the city’s crown court heard that more than 1,800 cannabis plants had been found growing in various units at the site in Mount Street and the potential yield of the drugs could have had a wholesale value of more than £350,000. Prosecutor Felicity Hemlin said it was an incredibly large operation and the cannabis was likely to have been sold on a wholesale basis.
Judge Colin Burn said those playing a leading or significant role in the cannabis production would have seen it as “an industrial facility." Tran, 32, and Nguyen, 19 were both arrested in separate units on the site when officers moved in on April 11 this year.
The court heard that Tran had served jail sentences before for his involvement in cannabis growing and had even come back into the country after being deported. Nguyen, had no previous convictions, and the court was told he had no money and nowhere to live at the time. The teenager had come into the country illegally when he was 15 and he had stayed at the unit out of fear.
His barrister said he had now signed voluntary deportation papers and wanted to return to his family in Vietnam. Both defendants had been remanded in custody since their arrests and Judge Burn imposed custodial sentences which will mean they could both be deported imminently.
The judge jailed Tran for 21 months after he pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of cannabis partway through his trial. Nguyen was sentenced to 19 months in a young offenders institution after he admitted the same offence at an earlier stage. The judge said he accepted that both defendants had become involved in the offending due to “a degree of pressure” and their own circumstances.
Ernest Kazlauskas
Kazlaukas drove into an industrial unit that was the host of an "international distribution hub" for cannabis products, and two grows, as police pounced.
He claimed he was attending the site to use a sauna that was housed in one of the units, but a search of his vehicle revealed chemicals and plant food used in cannabis production. The 35-year-old was arrested and one of the keys in his possession opened a third unit which prosecutor Austin Newman told Bradford Crown Court was effectively a warehouse or holding point for a significant quantity of cannabis products.
The unit contained equipment, labels and packaging which suggested that it was being used as a distribution hub. He said the labels contained a QR code which, when scanned directed customers to the encrypted Telegram social media platform and an online website. The site advertised various strains of cannabis as well as oil extracts, liquids and Vape pens for sale on the black market.
A further search of the unit revealed a large quantity of cannabis as well as a large number of Vape pens. A police expert had estimated that the products in the unit could have been worth more than £100,000. The police also linked Kazlauskas to a semi-detached house in Green Hill Lane, Wortley, Leeds, and when that property was searched they found 152 cannabis plants growing in two ground floor rooms.
Those plants could have produced cannabis with an estimated wholesale value of £54,000. The court heard that Kazlauskas had a latest model iPhone 15, but he refused to reveal the PIN and police were unable to download any data or messages from it.
Kazlauskas pleaded guilty to charges of producing cannabis and being concerned in the supply of cannabis and Judge Colin Burn jailed him for a total of three years.
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