Jailed: £5,000 Shrewsbury thief wasted numerous chances to stay out of prison

Jack Wright, 26, was handed a one-year sentence in November 2016 after he was convicted of stealing more than £5,255 from his employer, but the term was suspended for two years.

As part of the suspended sentence order he was told to complete 20 rehabilitation activity days and 120 hours’ unpaid work.

But within weeks of being given that chance he was back at Shrewsbury Crown Court for failing to attend appointments. This pattern continued and he appeared before the court again in May 2017 and November 2017 for further breaches.

On the last two occasions he was told it was his last opportunity to change his ways, and on Friday when he was sentenced for a fourth breach Recorder William Edis told him the ‘patience of the court has run out’.

Prosecutor Mr Robert Edwards said Wright, of Allerton Road, Shrewsbury, had completed just three of his 20 rehabilitation days in the 16 months since the order was imposed.

A probation report gave details of repeated failures to attend appointments or provide evidence as to why he could not attend. It said: “His level of motivation to complete the order is extremely low. He just does not consider it a priority.”

Mr Brendan Reedy, for Wright, said his mother and pregnant fiancée would suffer if he was locked up. He said Wright was paying off his mother’s rent arrears in weekly instalments and she was in danger of being evicted if he was imprisoned and unable to pay.

But Recorder Edis said this should have prompted him to make more effort, and activated five months of Wright’s original prison sentence.

“This order was meant to help you and you could not be bothered to be helped,” he said.

“This sentence has not worked. It has failed because of your complete failure to engage and your utter contempt for it.

"And now you have the gall to say that if we activate it, other people will suffer. Well that is a fairly good reason for you to have complied with the order.”