Had his collar felt by the law...
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:51 pm
A man accused of stealing a top brand of coat from a sports shop appeared in front of a judge wearing the item he had shoplifted.
Stephen Kirkbride, 46, arrived in court wearing the £125 Craghopper waterproof, leaving witnesses in court speechless.
Staff called to give evidence for the prosecution recognised the coat as the one he had stolen from the town’s Sports Direct shop when he left it on a chair in the court, and alerted police.
Kirkbride was ordered to surrender the coat when he appeared at South Lakeland Magistrates’ Court, Kendal.
Kirkbride’s defence solicitor Judith Birkett said her client ‘wouldn’t be so stupid’ as to turn up in stolen goods, but Kendal magistrate Jenny Farmer found him guilty of shoplifting.
She dismissed his excuses as ‘completely implausible’.
Store manager Deborah Robson said: 'I pointed the jacket out to the police officer and he seized it straight away.'
Kirkbride, of no fixed address, told the court that he had picked up the expensive coat, which had large tear marks where security tags had been removed, from a charity shop.
'It was damaged but I thought it was a bargain,' he said.
Kendal police constable Jose da Silve Neto had already confiscated the two-part coat’s inner fleece from Kirkbride’s previous address at Town View Fields, Kendal, after CCTV footage showed the defendant taking the jacket from Sports Direct on February 3.
However, police had not been able to find the gortex outer layer until the defendant wore it to court.
Kirkbride said he had picked up his courtroom attire ‘from a friend’s house’, although he refused to reveal the person’s identity.
Crown prosecutor David Duke said: 'You’re making this up as you go along, aren’t you?'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1Q97uceFa
