57-year-old shoplifter breaks five-year clean streak by stealing sunglasses

A prolific shoplifter broke a five-year streak of good behaviour by stealing sunglasses from a town centre shop.Jamie Michelson, who had a history of committing 70 thefts between 1983 and 2019, was back at Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.He admitted stealing a pair of sunglasses from Boots in the town centre, as well as damaging a pair from the same store.

The offence took place on the afternoon of September 12, when he was captured on CCTV putting the glasses, worth £12, into his pocket and leaving without paying.He was also witnessed damaging another pair of sunglasses when attempting to remove a security tag.The 57-year-old, of St Nicholas Close in Lynn, was later detained by police outside Kebab Masters in town and was arrested. In mitigation, duty solicitor George Sorrell said that Michelson struggles with his eyesight and was disappointed that shop workers had not offered him more help.“He hasn’t quite learnt the lesson that you can’t help yourself to things and you must pay for items,” Mr Sorrell said. “He didn’t mean to damage the other pair of sunglasses – he was very dithery at the time so they got damaged.”Michelson, who owes almost £3,000 in court payments, was this time handed a 12-month conditional discharge by magistrates.