Drug addict jailed after Walsall shop raid
A HEROIN addict who threatened shoppers with a knife after he was caught shoplifting has been put behind bars for a year.
Lee Checkley, aged 34, stole £55 of groceries from a store in Sutton Road, Walsall, Rhiannon Jones, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court.
But when a woman assistant tried to stop him leaving the premises he produced the weapon and pointed it at other customers before making his escape.
Checkley, a drug addict for 14 years, admitted theft, assault and possessing an offensive weapon and he was told by Recorder Shamin Qureshi prison was the only appropriate sentence.
"You are a typical drug addict and you cannot say you have not been given chances by courts in the past.
"There is a great deal of public concern at the moment about knives and, on this occasion, it was fortunate you did not use it to cause injury. "But a young girl working in the shop was put in fear of getting stabbed or even killed."
Timothy Sapwell, defending, told the court it was the "depresssingly familiar" story of a life being ruined by an addiction to Class A drugs.
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