A 60-YEAR-OLD shoplifter who bit a store detective on the arm as he tried to restrain him has been sentenced to 120 hours of community service.
The assault happened the second time Manuel Antonio Marques Duarte stole from Waitrose, the Magistrate’s Court heard on Friday 26 April.
Legal adviser Louisa Stuart, prosecuting, said Duarte had stolen from the Red Houses store on 10 December last year – loading a trolley with £374 worth of groceries and wheeling it out without paying.
He then returned five days later. Ms Stuart said: “Staff were keeping an eye out and saw him attempt to leave without paying for a trolley full of groceries worth £211.”
She added that when stopped, Duarte was initially calm and compliant, but as soon as he heard that the States police had been called he turned violent and tried to struggle free from the staff member who was restraining him, biting him in the right arm and leaving a scar.
Duarte admitted grave and criminal assault, being disorderly on premises and two counts of theft.
Advocate Chris Baglin, defending, accepted that Duarte had “clearly crossed the custodial threshold” but argued for a community service order.
He pointed out that Duarte had expressed his remorse and pleaded guilty – and had been drinking at the time of the offences.
Advocate Baglin said: “There has never been any violence before. This was borne out of alcohol. None of this would have happened had he been sober.”
Relief Magistrate Peter Harris ordered Duarte to pay the victim £600 in compensation, saying: “The action of biting was clearly criminal, and the fact that it went through two layers of clothes shows how hard the bite must have been.
“It was so serious that you were at risk of going to prison.”
Duarte was also ordered to pay Waitrose £400 for the groceries stolen on the first occasion, which were not recovered.
