Getaway driver’s catalogue of crime

Reoffender Matthew Stowe, 34, from Stanley Wooster Way, Colchester, admitted a string of offences committed around North Essex when he appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday.

Judge David Turner suspended his sentence.

Stowe, who already had 23 convictions for 40 offences, went on a crime spree after becoming hooked on heroin for a second time.

On December 11, he drove the getaway car after his accomplice stole £20 of meat from Tesco Express in St Christopher Road, Colchester.

On December 27 they stole more than £200 of vodka from a Colchester Co-op.

On both occasions, Stowe was caught on CCTV driving away in his Vauxhall Corsa, which has now been forfeited.

On January 8, he helped steal two televisions from a Co-op store in Brightlingsea and on January 13 more than £200 of goods from the Budgens, in Drury Road.

He was also sentenced for receiving stolen goods and two counts of fraud by false representation after he received almost £600 on goods and cash-back on a debit card which was not his.

This offence took place less than 24-hours after receiving a community order for other offences at Colchester Magistrates’ Court on February 4.

The community order was the fifth he had been given since 2001.

The court was told he had also been jailed in 2006 and had subsequently managed to get off heroin, before being made redundant and starting to use the drug again again in 2014.

Judge Turner said: “You have a simply appalling record stretching back 15 years.

“The courts are desperate to know how to help you.

“It is not that your individual offences are of enormous gravity, but it is the repetition and persistence.

“It is a shameful record. The court is in an impossible position.”

Stowe was jailed for a total of 14 months, but the sentence was suspended.

He was ordered to take part in a drug rehabilitation programme, rehabilitation activities and carry out 100 hours unpaid work.

His accomplice will be sentenced at a later date.