Hammer-attack robber handed an extra day in prison for stealing fuel

A CONVICTED robber, who was once part of a gang who attacked a man with in hammer in his own home, has now admitted to stealing fuel.

Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court heard James Sneath twice put diesel into a vehicle he was driving and told a cashier he would come back and pay later. Both times he gave the worker a false name.

Representing himself over a link from Ranby prison, the 32-year-old told the hearing he has been recalled on an indeterminate sentence and did not know how long it would be before he is released.

But it was not said what that sentence had been imposed for.

Sneath told the hearing: “On those two occasions I was told I would not be prosecuted if I paid within seven days, but I was then recalled to prison and it is not until today that I’ve found out anything about this matter. I’m on an indeterminate sentence, it could be one year, it could be two years, it could be five years, I don’t have a release date, it is indeterminate.

“Since I was last released five years ago and have got a full-time job, I have got two little children and I am trying to better myself. I just want the opportunity to get on with my life and not receive a custodial sentence.”

In 2009, Sneath was jailed for two years, nine months, at Manchester Crown Court after admitting to robbery.

On that occasion, when he was aged 21 and of no fixed address, he and a second man attacked a man with a hammer while the victim was asleep on his sofa.

Becky Allsop, prosecuting the latest case, said Sneath, formerly of Cornwall Close, Brimington, went to the same Sainsbury’s filling station on January 1 and 24, 2020, and took more than £40 of fuel before giving a false name to the cashier. She said: “In his police interview he admitted what he had done and told them he ‘just fancied some free fuel’.”

Magistrates handed Sneath one day’s custody and David Martin, chair of the bench, told him: “We accept you have been trying to turn your life around.”