Suspended jail sentence for Newbury Tesco shopliftter Jay Abery

A THIEF with a “flagrant disregard” for the courts has been given a suspended prison sentence.

In the dock at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Monday, September 18, was Jay Abery.

The 21-year-old, of Newtown Road, Newbury, had denied stealing alcohol and pet food together worth £264.80 from Tesco in Newbury on Wednesday, January 4.

But he did not attend his trial and the case was found proved in his absence.

Mr Abery had pleaded guilty to a separate offence of remaining at 3, Christie Heights in Newbury on Monday, July 31 in defiance of a court closure order.

A warrant was meanwhile issued for his arrest.

At Monday’s sentencing hearing district judge Samuel Goozee sentenced Mr Abery to 20 weeks imprisonment suspended for a year.

He said a prison sentence, albeit suspended, was necessary because the defendant had shown a “flagrant disregard for court orders.”

Mr Abery, who was legally represented at the hearing by Heulwen Everton, was ordered to pay a statutory victim services surcharge of £154.

Judge Goozee said he would ordinarily have imposed an order for £156 costs but deemed the time Mr Abery had spent in custody following his arrest on the warrant was sufficient in lieu.