Prolific shoplifter headbutted security guard

A prolific shoplifter who repeatedly headbutted a security guard has been jailed.

Joshua Turner, 22, entered Morrisons in Lincoln Road, Walton, Peterborough, on 3 July and picked up two bottles of alcohol worth a total of £67 before going to leave without paying. He was confronted by a security guard but swung a bottle towards him and ran out the shop.

He returned to the supermarket on 8 July and picked up two more bottles of alcohol worth £66. The same security guard confronted Turner again, who headbutted him in the face repeatedly and ran out the shop.

Turner, of no fixed address, was arrested on 12 July in Sainsbury’s, Oxney Road, after police were called to the shop as staff had detained Turner after he tried to steal £214 worth of vodka.

He was later charged with two counts of common assault, four counts of theft from a shop which includes the theft of £80 worth of alcohol from Tesco in Staniland Way, Werrington, on 10 July, and being in breach of his two-year Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) that was issued in January banning him from entering any Co-Op, Tesco or TK Maxx in Peterborough.

Turner appeared at Huntingdon Magistrates’ Court on Saturday (13 July) where he admitted all offences and was sentenced to 20 weeks in prison. He has also been ordered to pay £150 in compensation to the security guard.

PC Andrew Holland, who investigated, said: “The assaults that the security guard went through for trying to do his job is awful, and I am glad that this is reflected in Turner receiving a custodial sentence as no one should be made to feel intimidated or fear violence in the workplace.

“Thanks to the greater powers that come with the CBO, we are able to arrest Turner everytime he is found to breach the order and put him back before the courts.”

Anyone with information about Turner breaching his CBO should contact police via the web chat service or online forms at www.cambs.police.uk/report.

Those without internet access should call 101.