JACKSON: EIGHT MONTHS FOR HEALTHCARE WORKER CAUGHT WITH LOOTED SPEAKERS

A healthcare worker who planned to kit out his lounge with a looted stereo system was jailed for eight months today (weds).

Stephen Jackson, 49, claimed he found the four damaged speakers including a ‘subwoofer’ in the street and he was going to restore them.

They had been stolen in a raid on hi-fi shop Richer Sounds in South End Road, Croydon, on August 8.

Jackson was arrested when police went to his home, in Kingsdown Avenue, Purley, on August 13, and he led them to the items in his wardrobe.

He told officers:’I can’t believe I did it. I’m totally stupid.’

The father-of-one claims he found the sub-woofer in a bin in an alley, and the other speakers on a grass verge near his home.

Sabha Macmanus, defending, said though he had several convictions in the 1980’s he had since managed to ‘put a very difficult time behind him’.

The barrister said advice from a judge in Manchester said it was possible to suspend jail sentences for those who took possession of stolen goods far from the scene of riots.

Jackson bowed his head as she said it would be a preferable option because it would enable him to keep his full-time job with a healthcare company.

She said because they were not a complete set, the items were also of a lower value, around £500, than they would have been in mint condition.

Ms Macmanus added: ‘He was not going to sell them. He thought he could mend them and do up the surround sound system for use with his own television.’

But Judge Peter Grobel said: ‘These were stolen items which came your way very shortly after the civil disorder in Croydon.

‘It was plain and obvious to you that this was the source.’

Jackson, of Kingsdown Road, Purley, Surrey, admitted handling stolen goods.

He will serve half the sentence behind bars less 31 days spent on remand.

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