Shoplifter is jailed after street brawl (From York Press)

Shoplifter Luke Owen is jailed after street brawl

8:12am Friday 26th October 2012 in News

A SHOPLIFTER who carried a lock knife has been jailed for brawling with a security guard in a busy street.

Luke Owen, 23, of Larch Way, Selby, pleaded guilty to theft, assault and possession of an offensive weapon at Selby Magistrates’ Court.

Sandra White, prosecuting, said Owen had walked out of Yorkshire Trading, in Gowthorpe, on Saturday, September 8, with bedding worth £40.48 which he had not paid for.

When approached by security staff, he returned to the store, but left again with the bedding before police arrived. He was chased along Gowthorpe by the store security guard.

Owen then “pushed the detective into a shop window and into the road”, and when restrained, “threw his elbow” at the guard before police arrived.

Police searched Owen, and found a lock knife in his pocket, and he was arrested.

Keith Haggarty, mitigating, said Owen had not been in trouble with the authorities for two years, but had “fallen back into spending time with people who were encouraging him to take drugs”.

He said Owen “did not use or threaten to use the knife, and did not even take it out of his pocket”.

Magistrate Angela Lewis told Owen: “This was a sustained attack on a security guard who was only doing his job. It was a crowded place where there would be members of the public and children around. Even taking into account your early guilty plea, you have again crossed the threshold of a custodial sentence.”

Owen was sentenced to 20 weeks in prison – ten weeks each for the theft and assault, to be served concurrently, and ten weeks for possession of a knife, to be served concurrently.