A PROLIFIC shoplifter has been jailed for two years and four months and banned from entering shops in Stanford le Hope and Southend for five years.

Kyle Sherwin, 36, has had a 12-month suspended prison sentence activated, as well as receiving a further 16-month prison sentence.

Basildon Crown Court was told that Sherwin, of Dowland Close, in Stanford-le-Hope, was a prolific offence who had previously committed offences while on bail as well as during the term of a suspended sentence.

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After having his 12-month suspended prison sentence activated, he has received a further 16-month sentence for nine thefts in January 2023, totalling £667.50, from the Co-op in Stanford-le-Hope High Street.

Sherwin was also issued with a five-year criminal behaviour order.

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This forbids Sherwin to enter the Co-op in Stanford-le-Hope High Street and Tesco Express stores in King Street, Stanford-le-Hope, and the Kursaal, in Eastern Esplanade, Southend.

Sherwin, who had admitted all the thefts, had been committed to Basildon Crown Court for sentence by Southend magistrates.

PC Alex Plakhtienko, of the business crime team, said Sherwin’s offending had been serious and he had even verbally threatened someone who had tried to stop him leaving a shop with goods he had stolen.

He said: “Shoplifting is not a victimless crime.

“Sherwin’s behaviour affected customers and staff in the shops he targeted repeatedly over a number of months, even after he’d been arrested for similar offences.

“We have a duty to protect all victims of crime from repeat offenders. And one way we can do this is by applying to the courts for criminal behaviour orders which are designed to prevent their re-offending.”

Sherwin originally received the 12-month suspended prison sentence last November after pleading guilty to a series of thefts from shops in Stanford le Hope and Southend in February, March, and June 2022.