Jamie Kavanagh

A Great Yarmouth man stole from charity shops as part of a ‘spree’ of offences sparked by his inability to cope with the terminal illness of his mother, a court has heard.

Jamie Kavanagh, 39, of Admiralty Road, Yarmouth, was jailed for a total of 30 months and 14 weeks when he appeared at Norwich Crown Court to be sentenced on Tuesday.

Kavanagh, who had previously been convicted at Great Yarmouth Magistrates Court of one offence of threatening behaviour, two thefts, two burglaries, being in breach of a suspended sentence for burglary and in breach of a conditional discharge for burglary, also asked for eight other offences to be taken into consideration.

Robert Warner, prosecuting, said Kavanagh entered the East Coast Hospice Charity shop on April 15 and destroyed charity boxes before removing their contents.

Most of the large value coins had been removed, but he also took a coin tray, attempted to take a safe from the wall and caused £385 worth of damage.

Mr Warner said Kavanagh also burgled GFS Platform, a Yarmouth-based charity which helps young women between 14 and 35. He broke in and removed a large wooden block and caused £300 worth of damage.

The court heard Kavanagh, who has 51 convictions for 142 offences, also stole electrical items from Boots on two occasions, worth £149.99 and £139.99 respectively.

He also entered the Subway restaurant in Yarmouth at 10pm, for a third time, on May 9 and became involved in a tussle with the manager, whose coat was ripped, and caused damage to a display.

Jonathan Morgans, mitigating, said Kavanagh, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was “sickened” by what he has done and wanted to apologise.

He said at the time Kavanagh had discovered his mother had a terminal illness, had not been taking his medication, instead using amphetamine, and got himself into such a state he commits a “spree of offences”.

Mr Morgans added: “He realised she’s going to die as a result of this illness. It was his inability to cope that led to this spree.”

Sentencing Kavanagh, Judge Paul Downes said he had “one of the longest records” he had seen and burgled and caused damage to organisations that relied on public subscriptions.

He said: “It’s high time, in my view, that your sentence reflects the damage you do to other people many of them more deserving than you are because although you have a medical condition you do nothing whatsoever to mitigate it and you do everything to make it worse by taking drugs.”