Wedding wrecker can’t be jailed for longer
AHEROIN addict with 187 offences on his record will serve no extra jail time, despite burgling a bride’s hotel room while she was getting married.
Serial thief Samuel Lamberton, 36, is already in jail until November next year for a spate of burglaries – but his sentence will not increase, despite ruining the special day of Maghull couple Siobhan and Malcolm Lawson.
Lamberton, of no fixed address, smirked in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court as the judge, Recorder Mukhtar Hussain, QC, said his hands were tied by legislation meaning if an offender has already been recalled to prison on licence, a judge cannot make a new sentence consecutively.
He was given 40 weeks in prison, to run alongside his current sentence, after pleading guilty to burgling the Royal Clifton Hotel, Southport, on September 22 last year.
A statement from Mrs Lawson, read in court, said: “Since this, I have been extremely upset at having my special wedding day ruined. I suffer from anorexia which was made worse; I could not eat properly for a week.
“I will have to carry on knowing my day was ruined and my property was taken.”
Chris Taylor, prosecuting, told the court Mrs Lawson, 40, had left gifts of £100 cash and a £280 bottle of Armagnac in her room before leaving for her wedding at about 3.50pm.
Mr Taylor said: “She came back about midnight with her husband. The following morning, upon waking up, she realised the burglary had taken place and those gifts had been taken.
“This was reported to staff at the hotel who checked CCTV footage, which showed a male forcing the door, entering the room and then leaving it.”
The incident was reported to police and a local PCSO recognised Lamberton from the footage.
He was traced to HMP Hewell in Worcestershire, where he had been recalled on licence after a spate of burglaries, but made no comment in interview.
Mr Taylor told the court Lamberton had been convicted 68 times for 187 offences since 2001.
Richard Bannister, defending, said his client realised he has “wasted much of his adult life.”
He told the court: “The affliction that causes these offences is drug misuse, which had been with him for a significant period of time.”
Recorder Hussain, passing sentence, said: “This was a particularly mean burglary as the victim in this case was staying in the hotel at a time when she was getting married.
After the burglary, the couple decided not to go on their honeymoon to Croatia, as Lamberton’s actions made them wary of hotels. They were also unable to retrieve their goods, or compensation for them, as it is common practice in hotels that safety of goods are the guests’ responsibility.
As a goodwill gesture, the hotel offered them a free weekend stay, to mark their first anniversary.
But, earlier this year, mum-of-two Mrs Lawson said: “I am never going back there, it does nothing but bring back bad memories.”
A statement from The Royal Clifton Hotel, which was issued at the time of the incident, said: “Here at the Royal Clifton Hotel and Spa we have extensive CCTV coverage of our property and we were able to provide valuable CCTV footage to the police regarding this incident which has resulted in the arrest of a member of the public.”