Shrewsbury robber with ‘atrocious record’ jailed after all else fails
Connor Falconer, aged 26 and of no fixed address, had more than 35 offences to his name.
A Shrewsbury thief with an “atrocious record” who barged through a convenience store worker as he attempted to steal a basket of chocolates, six days after being handed a court order due to previous shoplifting, has been jailed.
Shrewsbury Crown Court heard how Connor Falconer, aged 26 and of no fixed address, had entered the town centre shop on August 14 last year less than a week after being given a community order by Telford Magistrate Court for previous shop thefts.
Mr Richard Davenport, prosecuting, said Falconer had been before the courts on at least a dozen occasions before for more than 38 previous offences - mostly for shop theft.
But he said on August 14, 2025, a shop worker tried to prevent the thief from walking out of the store with a basket loaded with chocolates and sweets, leading Falconer to “barge” and “grab” the woman to force her out of the way.
Falconer, who admitted one count of robbery on Wednesday (July 15), was returned to court for sentencing on Thursday (July 16). This defence counsel Mr Rob Edwards asked the judge to suspend any sentence, telling the court that the source of Falconer’s offending was “addiction” to both alcohol and drugs and appealed for some form of intervention or rehabilitation programme.
However, Judge Trevor Meegan, who commended the shopworker for trying to intervene to stop Falconer, told the defendant he had “an atrocious record” and that the courts had tried everything before and had failed.
“You have had drug rehabilitation, suspended sentences, community order - the whole breadth of different types of disposal,” he said, adding that any sentence other than prison would now be “setting you up to fail”.
He jailed Falconer for 13 months.