Gidea Park plumber jailed for stealing Samsung Galaxy from Cash Concepts

A plumber has been jailed after admitting stealing a smart phone from a pawnbroker’s.

Lee Gray, 31, of Kidman Close, Gidea Park, pleaded guilty to one charge of theft from a shop.

Barkingside Magistrates’ Court heard on Friday that he ran out of Cash Concepts, in High Street, Romford, with a Samsung Galaxy phone worth about £330 on Thursday of last week.

He had asked a sales assistant if he could hold the gold coloured handset.

Andrea Scantlebury, prosecuting, said Gray told the assistant he wanted to see if a SIM card would fit in the phone before he left the store.

Ms Scantlebury said security guards “bear-hugged” Gray to the ground after he left the shop having said to the sales assistant “what the f*** are you going to do about it?”

Gray, who appeared in court wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt, managed to get away from security guards but was later apprehended by police, the court heard.

He had been subject to a suspended sentence following an altercation with security guards at a McDonald’s restaurant in central London last year.

Kaushik Ramdhary, mitigating, told the court that Gray was a casual worker and did not receive regular wages. He said that Gray had not had any money during the past four weeks and was being helped by friends.

Judge Susan Holdham activated a sentence of 16 weeks in jail and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £80.