AFTER pleading guilty to three charges of theft a man hoped magistrates would take a lenient view on him when they heard he had since turned his life around.

But when they activated his suspended sentence and jailed him he shouted an obscenity from the dock at them.

Gareth Fanning appeared in custody before magistrates sitting in Swindon on Wednesday after he failed to attend court last week to answer the charges against him, leading to a warrant being issued for his arrest.

As well as pleading guilty to missing his day in court the 30-year-old of Milverton Court pleaded guilty to stealing £199.95-worth of bedding from Home Sense at the Greenbridge Retail Park on March 14 and four jars of coffee from the Cavendish Square Co-op on April 11. He was further charged jointly stealing two boxes of Ariel washing tablets valued at £9.98 from Poundstretcher at St Margaret’s Retail Park with Luke Clements on April 10, which led to him being discovered in possession of a small amount of cannabis.

Pleading guilty to these offences put him in breach of a suspended prison sentence that had been imposed on December 1 of last year for three charges of shoplifting.

Defending him, Richard Williams told the court that there was a real desire on his client’s behalf to change his behaviour and was turning his life around from a life addicted to class A drugs, and had been clean since before Christmas.

“I would invite your worships to adjourn for a full presentence report – including full consideration of his current position and changes to his lifestyle,” he said. He explained that his client had turned up for court last week, only to be told that the matter had already been dealt with and a warrant for his arrest issued.

“He has been offered a job which is due to start on Monday as a ground worker which is a full time position for a six month contract. He is very keen to take up that opportunity. His partner is also six months pregnant.

“When someone becomes a parent for the first time they often grow in maturity and social responsibility and that is something he wishes to be available for.

“He instructs me that his life is on the brink of better things that he has been used to.”

But the magistrates decided this was not an option open to them. Chairman of the bench Deborah Couzens told him: “We see no reason not to activate this suspended sentence order and we are going to activate it in full for a period of 28 days.”

In addition to his prior prison sentence, they also imposed 14 days for each of the three theft matters, which will run concurrently with each other but consecutively to his original sentence. This means he will spend 42 days behind bars. He was also ordered to pay compensation totalling £289.89.

As he was sent down he swore at the magistrates.