Stealing a mobile phone lands a Whitburn man in jail

Dec 31 2009 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

STEALING a mobile phone landed a drug addict in jail.

Livingston Sheriff Court heard that Jason Middleton stole the phone from a woman who was at attending a Halloween party at The Twig pub in Bathgate.

When police arrived the phone was retrieved from the 34-year-old’s pocket and returned to its owner.

Last week at the court Middleton, whose address was given as West Main Street, Whitburn, pled guilty to the theft.

His solicitor, Gerry Bann, asked the court for a deferral of sentence on Middleton to assess his client’s suitable for a Drug Treatment and Testing Order.

Mr Bann added: “His last seven cases have attracted custody – one after the other with no attempt to give him anything but prison.

“He has been fairly conditioned to custody and it does not hold any particular fear for him.

“If that’s the situation he has come to then I don’t think there is any hope a period of custody will ever address the issues he has. While he continues to have an addiction problem which brings him in front of the court the problem is not nearly as serious or dangerous as it was.

“He is assessed at a high risk of reoffending and at a high risk of reoffending and the last seven custodial sentences have done nothing to address this.

“There is no easy answer, I appreciate that, I just feel that the option I present is the lowest risk and will present the best chance of addressing his problems in the future.”

However, Sheriff Muirhead said he was not convinced a DTTO would help Middleton.

Sentencing him to four months imprisonment Sheriff Muirhead added: “The difficulty I have is that this would be your third go at a DTTO and the previous ones did not work. We think there may now be a chance but I have to balance up what the community wants me to do in terms of protection, how serious I feel the crime is and how likely it is to address your drug problem.

“It does not seem to me fair on the community that you will continue to offend in the hope that a DTTO may be successful this time. The signs that you will cooperate and it will be successful in stopping you committing more crimes are not strong enough in my opinion and accordingly the only appropriate punishment is imprisonment.”