Telford offender dodges jail a second time
A man who went on a shoplifting spree six weeks after being spared jail for leading police on a high-speed car chase and assaulting an officer has avoided prison again.
Schizophrenic Richard Fredrick Dillon, from Telford, stole DVDs and perfume while serving an eight-month suspended sentence for dangerous driving and assaulting a police officer.
Yesterday he walked free from Shrewsbury Crown Court after being given another two-month suspended prison sentence.
The court heard he stole DVDs from Argos and perfume from Boots in Meole Brace, Shrewsbury, which risked activating his eight-month sentence.
Dillon, 27, of Wildwood, Woodside, was convicted of three counts of theft by magistrates who sent him to the town's crown court for sentencing.
The shoplifting was in breach of a eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years after he admitted dangerous driving and assaulting a police officer handed down to him on April 1. He was also banned from driving for three years after leading police on an 11-mile pursuit through residential streets in Telford at speeds of up to 60mph – while his partner and two young children were in the car.
Then the court heard Dillon was a paranoid schizophrenic who had made several attempts on his own life, had undergone specialist treatment and had not taken his medication for two weeks at the time of the pursuit last August.
Judge Peter Barrie sentencing yesterday said:
"In the circumstances it would be unjust for me to impose the suspended sentence. I am not going to send you to prison today. But you have got to work on taking your medication."
He received two months in prison for each of the three shoplifting offences to run concurrently but to be suspended for 12 months.
He was also ordered to complete a supervision order to comply with doctors orders and take his medication.
