Don't I Recognize You From Somewhere?

Courtesy of

A THIEF who stole from an Ipswich sports shop and had the nerve to go back the next day and ask for a job got his comeuppance when staff recognised him from CCTV footage.

Daniel Alexander was unsurprisingly told there was no job available to him when he went to JD Sports just one day after he had shoplifted from the store.

Alexander, 18, appeared in South East Magistrates' Court on Monday , where he was charged with stealing a hooded top worth £28 from the Tavern Street shop in May.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it was not an unusual case - other than the fact he had tried to get a job there.

Alexander, of no fixed address, was given a one-day custody sentence after pleading guilty to the offence.

Howard Catherall, mitigating, said: “He's a young man who doesn't get on with his stepfather and has periodic spells of homelessness.

“During these spells he has no financial support and he delves into petty shoplifting, stealing one item at a time and selling it for food.

“It's a cycle. He leaves home, steals, sells it and then makes up with his family. There's no visible end to the cycle.”

Mr Catherall asked the court to provide Alexander with help from the Probation Service. But while sentencing, District Judge Samantha Leigh said it was up to Alexander to solve his problem.

She said: “You may only be 18 years old but people younger than you manage to survive and sort themselves out and that's what you need to do.”

It was a shop manager who recognised Alexander from security camera footage when he went to the shop and asked for a job.

At court, Alexander also pleaded guilty to failing to show for court on an earlier occasion and admitted breaching a conditional discharge imposed previously for shoplifting and failing to surrender to court.