Christian drug addict battled demons before stealing toys from Worksop store

A Christian drug addict who battled with his demons before stealing £183 of toys from a Worksop store has been spared a prison sentence.
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Wayne Millington was stopped shortly after leaving Matalan, on February 25, and told police officers he planned to sell the toys to buy drugs.

Prosecutor Daniel Pietryka said the theft put him in breach of a two-month sentence, suspended for one year, that was imposed on May 14, 2021.

Pamela Coxon, mitigating, said it was "almost a pleasure" to defend Millington as she sought to persuade magistrates not to activate the sentence.

Mansfield Magistrates Court.Mansfield Magistrates Court.
Mansfield Magistrates Court.

She said the defendant has been clean of drugs after his stays at a Christian hostel in Worksop and at the Mattersey Bible College, near Retford.

"He thought he could stand on his own two feet and decided to leave," she said. "That was the biggest mistake he's made in the last 12 months."

Magistrates heard Millington found himself sleeping in doorways in February.

When he was able to sleep on sofas, they belonged to former associates and that "came with the temptations that he was desperate to move away from”.

After entering Matalan he "walked around for an hour, in effect dealing with his own demons”, Mrs Coxon said, before "taking a shed-load of items”, that were later recovered.

Millington, 38, now of Bracken Court, Chesterfield, admitted theft when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Thursday.

The presiding magistrate told him: "It's very rare that we get such a glowing probation report for someone."

The suspended sentence was extended by three months and he was fined £80, with £85 costs and a £34 surcharge.