Two men from Northwich stole a grandmother’s mobility scooter while she paid a visit to a pharmacy in what magistrates described as a ‘despicable’ offence.
Louis Winnington, 20, of Freshwater View, was jailed for six months for the theft on April 28 this year, while 22-year-old Jake Dickens, of Water Street, was handed a six-month suspended sentence at Chester Magistrates Court on Wednesday (October 28).
Winnington and Dickens, who both have previous convictions, were found guilty of stealing 77-year-old Eileen Southern’s scooter following a trial earlier this month.
The court heard that Ms Southern – who suffers from diabetes, asthma and arthritis – parked the vehicle behind a fence on Drillfield Road so she could pop into a pharmacy following a doctor’s appointment, but when she returned it had vanished.
Winnington and Dickens admitted taking it but claimed they thought that it had been abandoned.
Victim personal statement
Rob Youds, prosecuting, read Ms Southern’s victim personal statement, in which she said she had suffered breathlessness and headaches in the immediate aftermath of the theft because she had been ‘getting worked up about it’.
“It has shaken me up and I have been very upset because of it,” she said.
The scooter had to undergo ‘significant’ repairs when it was returned to Ms Southern.
Becky Hay, defending, said her clients had taken the proceedings ‘extremely seriously’.
She explained that Winnington is a carer for his grandparents, who he lives with, and Dickens lives with his grandmother, which has made it ‘even more difficult to comprehend in terms of their guilt’.
She added: “They fully appreciate the impact on the victim because they live with elderly grandparents.”
Presiding magistrate Ian Irving branded the theft a ‘despicable crime’.
Magistrates ordered that each defendant pay a criminal court charge of £1,000 and an £80 victim surcharge.
Dickens was also ordered to pay £400 in compensation and had a two-month curfew imposed on him.
