Man jailed for stealing from Stowmarket school

A man who said he stole from a Stowmarket school because he was homeless has been jailed.

Toby Nicholls, 27, appeared at Ipswich Crown Court today after pleading guilty at a previous hearing to two offences of theft and one of causing criminal damage.

Although those offences committed in October were “relatively minor”, Nicholls had at the time been the subject of a 15 month suspended prison sentence imposed a month earlier for other matters, said Peter Gair, prosecuting.

Nicholls, of Station Road West, Stowmarket, had broken into Stowmarket Middle School to carry out the thefts, said Mr Gair.

Representing himself, Nicholls, who has been in custody since his arrest soon after the offences, told Mr Recorder Richard Sutton QC that he had been homeless at the time.

Nicholls said he was determined not to remain in prison but was told by Mr Recorder Sutton that while the latest offences were minor ones, the breach of a suspended prison sentence could not be ignored.

Mr Recorder Sutton activated six months of the suspended sentence and imposed a one month sentence to run concurrently for the thefts and damage.

Sentencing Nicholls, Mr Recorder Sutton told him: “If you keep disobeying court orders there will be more and more prison.

“If you want to keep out of prison, take heed.”