40 weeks in jail for prolific shop thief

A prolific shop thief has been jailed for 40 weeks following proactive work by the Lincoln Neighbourhood Policing Teams.

Officers carried out an arrest on Matthew Taylor, 32, of Goldsmith Walk, Lincoln, last week.

He was charged with two shop thefts, one count of common assault, and failing to appear in court.

The thefts took place at Waitrose in Lincoln and a Co-Op store between 26 September and 22 October, and meat and other items were stolen. The assault took place on 20 October at a Co-Op store.

At court he was convicted of those two thefts and a further four shop thefts which were heard at the same time, as well as the assault charge and for failing to appear. 

He has now been given a 40 week custody sentence for each theft charge, to run concurrently, a 20 week sentence for the common assault charge to also run concurrently, and a one week concurrent sentence for failing to appear.

The convictions were secured as a result of NPT officers working closely with the anti-social behaviour team, integrated offender management team, as well as members of the community to build a case against him.

He has also been given a three year Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) which will remain in place after his sentence is completed. The CBO has conditions that he must not enter any retail premises within the City of Lincoln, with the exception of Tesco and Tesco Pharmacy in Wragby Road. He must also alert staff of his presence before entering the store.

A CBO is an order designed to tackle the most serious and persistent anti-social individuals where their behaviour has brought them before a criminal court. If it’s breached, this is a criminal offence and custodial sentence can be enforced to deal with the individual.

We are proactively releasing his image to enable members of the public to steer clear of his offending once he is released from prison.