Worksop shoplifter on course to turn life around when he stole Hugo Boss joggers

Joshua Harte made off with a £139 pair of Hugo Boss joggers from the USC section of Sports Direct in Worksop on April 18, said prosecutor Becky Allsop. He later told police he had neither the means nor the intention to pay for them and sold them on.

The court heard he has 26 previous convictions for 74 offences, 50 of which are for theft, and he was jailed for shoplifting in February last year. Sulma Mansuri, mitigating, said Harte hasn’t offended for over a year and "it looked like he was turning things around.”

She said he was locked up for a serious matter in 2015 which “completely changed the direction of his life” and incarceration seriously impacted his mental health.

“When he came out as a young teenager he began smoking cannabis and taking cocaine,” said Ms Mansuri. She said the theft was a “completely stupid impulse offence” and “he lost his focus.”

Harte was “devastated” by the theft because shortly afterwards he was accepted on a construction course. "He wants to focus on plastering,” said Ms Mansuri. “He knows that having a job and structure will be the way to leave offending his behind him.”

Harte, aged 25, of Ely Close, Worksop, admitted theft when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Tuesday. He received a 12-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay a £139 compensation and a £114 surcharge.