He also stole a number of wallets and purses and spat at a detention officer when he was arrested
A notorious and “thoroughly dishonest” thief was “loitering around” a supermarket just seconds before he craftily stole a money bag containing £500 that an unsuspecting security officer was about to put into a cash machine. Drug user Darren Forrington took immediate advantage of the person seemingly becoming briefly distracted after putting the bag of cash down on the floor.
When Forrington was later taken into custody, he spat at a female detention officer in an “utterly revolting and despicable” assault that showed a “callous disregard” for her, a court heard. Forrington, 39, of Trent Court, Grimsby, but recently in custody on remand, admitted theft and assaulting a police detention officer as an emergency worker as well as five offences of fraud.
Ben Hammersley, prosecuting, told Hull Crown Court that Forrington went into a Cooperative store in Wingate Road, Grimsby, on December 2 while security staff were filling a cash machine. Forrington was “loitering” around before walking past the area where the cash machine was. He picked up a bag containing £500 that had been put down on the floor.
He took advantage of the person who was filling the cash machine being momentarily distracted and seized his chance to grab the money bag. Forrington was, however, identified through being “well known”.
“I don’t come to work to be assaulted, neither do any of my colleagues. I don’t want to think about what’s happened as it’s horrible to be assaulted.”
Forrington later said that he was sorry for spitting at the detention officer and he was willing to pay compensation. He had convictions for 95 previous offences between November 1999 and September last year, including 54 theft-related, and he had been jailed for 16 weeks for theft most recently.
Katherine White, mitigating, said that there was no evidence of planning in the theft of the cash from the store and it was entirely opportunist after seeing a chance. Unemployed Forrington made some admissions during police interview and he had been in custody since January 12.
“He wants to express remorse,” said Miss White. “He wishes to make reparations to the various victims in this case. He does have money within his bank account, which he is able to pay to those victims.
“These offences are again the result of his relapse into drug misuse. His record does him no favours but there are significant periods of no offending.”
Recorder Geraldine Kelly KC told Forrington: “You are a thoroughly dishonest man, who is in the habit of taking things that do not belong to you and spending money that has been earned by other people that you have no right to spend.” The spitting offence on the detention officer was “utterly revolting and despicable” and Forrington showed a “callous disregard” for her during the “horrible” assault.
“It’s no part of a police officer’s job to tolerate being assaulted at work,” said Recorder Kelly. “You are said to be a high risk of reoffending.”
Forrington was jailed for one year.
Source – Grimsby Telegraph