Judge gives pharmacy burglar one more chance
by Henry
A drug-addicted man broke through the front door of a pharmacy with a brick, stealing prescription drugs and causing £700 of damage.
Lee Keahey, 32, no fixed address, breached a previous suspended sentence when breaking into Kamson’s Pharmacy in Carshalton on 23rd January.
CCTV footage shows Mr Keahey smashing through the glass of the front door at 3.40am, causing damage which cost £700 to repair. He stole prescription drugs and walked out with two plastic baskets.
He was recognised from the video footage, but when arrested he denied the offence, although he pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court on 8th March. “He said that the drugs found with him were either prescribed by doctors or belonged to his friends,” the prosecution barrister said.
The defence barrister argued that Mr Keahey was “very sorry for his actions” and they were due to a relapse in his long-standing addiction to crack cocaine and heroin. He had been in a drug rehabilitation program for four months and now “desperately wants to live drug-free”.
“He did something that was utterly pointless,” he said.
Lee Keahey, 32, no fixed address, breached a previous suspended sentence when breaking into Kamson’s Pharmacy in Carshalton on 23rd January.
CCTV footage shows Mr Keahey smashing through the glass of the front door at 3.40am, causing damage which cost £700 to repair. He stole prescription drugs and walked out with two plastic baskets.
He was recognised from the video footage, but when arrested he denied the offence, although he pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court on 8th March. “He said that the drugs found with him were either prescribed by doctors or belonged to his friends,” the prosecution barrister said.
The defence barrister argued that Mr Keahey was “very sorry for his actions” and they were due to a relapse in his long-standing addiction to crack cocaine and heroin. He had been in a drug rehabilitation program for four months and now “desperately wants to live drug-free”.
“He did something that was utterly pointless,” he said.
This is the one last opportunity you have been given.
If you breach it, you will be going to prison.
Despite Mr Keahey breaching a previous suspended sentence for shoplifting, Judge Flahive sentenced him to another suspended sentence of eight months with a requirement to use the drug treatment services offered to him.
“This is the one last opportunity you have been given,” he told Mr Keahey. “If you breach it, you will be going to prison.”
At the time of the offence, Mr Keahey was in breach of a suspended sentence given in September 2016 for shoplifting meat from a shop in 20th April 2016 and common assault on the 14th of August of the same year. He had threatened his uncle who lived in the flat upstairs who was complaining about noise levels. In the assault, according the prosecution barrister, “Mr Keahey pulled out a knife, and said to the victim ‘I will do you’”.
“This is the one last opportunity you have been given,” he told Mr Keahey. “If you breach it, you will be going to prison.”
At the time of the offence, Mr Keahey was in breach of a suspended sentence given in September 2016 for shoplifting meat from a shop in 20th April 2016 and common assault on the 14th of August of the same year. He had threatened his uncle who lived in the flat upstairs who was complaining about noise levels. In the assault, according the prosecution barrister, “Mr Keahey pulled out a knife, and said to the victim ‘I will do you’”.