Wannabe Valium salesman handed community service

Sunday 04 August 2019

A 33-year-old, who stole £600 from a woman's bank account to "invest" in cut-price Valium tablets to sell on, has been handed community service for the “breach of trust".

Appearing this week in the Magistrate's Court, James Christopher Power was also sentenced for stealing a phone left in a charity shop belonging to someone with learning difficulties – an offence described as “mean” by Magistrate Bridget Shaw.

Legal Adviser Simon Crowder appeared for the prosecution, telling the Court that the woman noticed that £600 was missing from her account after checking her balance and noting that it was “below what she expected it to be."

The money had been taken out on three separate occasions via ATM machines and the Court heard that Power knew her PIN number because he had used it before when he had been shopping with her.

When the woman confronted him about it, he told her that he had “invested the money and she’d have it back.”

Pictured: The money was taken through a cash point.

He later told Police that he had taken the money out when he’d been presented with an “opportunity to buy cut-price Valium tablets” with the intention to sell them on. However, he “took too many of them himself and then wasn’t able to return the money.”

The Court heard that the money has since been paid back to the woman from her bank. 

Power was also charged with another offence committed when he was in a charity shop looking at clothes in March.

When someone working in the shop found a mobile phone on the counter, they asked Power if it was his. He said it was, and pocketed it, even though it didn't belong to him.

The Court heard that the real owner of the phone has learning difficulties and relies on the mobile “to be independent.” She was later reunited with the handset. 

Pictured: The case was heard in the Magistrate's Court.

Advocate Francesca Pinel described the taking of the mobile phone as an “opportunistic offence”, adding that her client “immediately gave Police information as to its whereabouts” when asked. 

She did however acknowledge that the ATM offences constituted a “breach of trust” and told the Court that Power was "remorseful” about his behaviour. 

Magistrate Bridget Shaw, presiding, told Power that neither of these incidents were “victimless offences” and described his taking of the phone as “mean.” 

She continued: “This morning I am just and only just persuaded that I should give you a chance with community service... the success or otherwise of this order lies in your hands.”

She then imposed 110 hours’ community service and a six-month probation order to be served concurrently.