Worksop man stole £14K off dad to fund lavish drug lifestyle

A Worksop man who stole £14,000 from his dad and blew the money on expensive gifts for his girlfriend and cocaine, risked ruining the family business, a court heard.
Mansfield Magistrates CourtMansfield Magistrates Court
Mansfield Magistrates Court

Jack Emmingham's theft was discovered when his dad checked the cash box in his bedroom wardrobe, on May 28, after becoming suspicious about his son's new designer clothes.

"He didn't think he could afford them as he didn't have a job and had declined a job his father had offered him," said prosecutor Donna Fawcett.

In a statement, his father said: "I feel stressed and worried about how I will keep my busines afloat.

"I couldn't sleep after I found the money had been taken. I don't want to go back into my home."

Emmingham told police he raided the cash box four or five times and spent most of it on an ex-girlfriend and drugs for himself.

The court heard how he had previously stolen from his grandmother in 2017.

Denise Aubrey, mitigating, said: "The best thing that can be said about it is that he admitted it when his dad challenged him.

"He has experienced remorse from the outset. Not just for the financial loss but for the emotional devastation he has caused the whole family."

She said Emmingham's offending was motivated by a desire to "fit in with a crowd and a wish to remain with a girlfriend."

She said he now had a new girlfriend, and realises the value of friends "who stand by him in difficult times and not those who want to be showered with expensive gifts and cocaine."

"He is due to start work as a plasterer," Ms Aubrey said. "It is his lifetime's aim to make financial and emotional recompense."

Emmingham, 21, of Leeds Road, Shireoaks, admitted the theft when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

District judge Jonathan Taaffe told him: "You are right to hang your head in shame. Your selfishness is astounding.

"You stole to use the money to fund a lifestyle you couldn't afford - designer clothes and hanging out with people who were clearly able to afford these matters.

"The use of cocaine and impressing a girlfriend. All the time knowing that the source of that money was your father. The effect it has had on him can't be underestimated.

"First he's had to deal with the heartbreak of a son who has breached his trust for a second occasion in a staggering way, and second, he has to deal with the financial consequences."

He gave Emmingham a 26 week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, with 31 days of programme activities and 15 days of rehabilitation.

He was ordered to pay compensation at the rate of £250 per month.

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