A serial thief has been jailed after he was caught with a knife and stole £30 worth of meat from a shop. Henry Taroni also breached a community order he was given for grabbing a woman’s bottom on a bus and he breached a suspended sentence for shoplifting.
The 29-year-old has more than 100 offences to his name, most of them for theft. But he has been offered a job in the family scrap metal business, on condition he can kick his addictions to alcohol and drugs. Birmingham Crown Court has been said.
Theresa Hunt, defending the accused, said: “His personal mitigation is based on his cycle of drug addiction. He started using cannabis at a very young age, around 13. At the time, he was struggling with a diagnosis of ADHD as a teenager.
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“What he desperately needs is to break the cycle of drug and alcohol addiction. That is his resolute intention while he is in prison. Once he achieves that, there will really be glimmers of hope.
“He has a supportive family. He also has an uncle who has a scrap metal business and who offered him a job. He can count on this support network to break the cycle of addiction.”
Taroni was given a community order in 2023 for committing a sexual assault, the court heard. Prosecutor Ibrahim Ilyas said he was “drunk and aggressive” on a bus at Sutton Coldfieldadding that he had interacted with a man only to “grab his girlfriend’s butt.”
In May this year he was given a 16-week suspended sentence for shoplifting offences including stealing £99 worth of chocolate and laundry detergent from a Co-op. But Taroni breached both orders by committing further offences.
On 29 May he was arrested stealing £30 worth of meat from a shop. Two days later police arrested him on suspicion of stealing a car. He was found to be in possession of a box cutter which he claimed he had on him for work.
On Thursday 11 July, Taroni, who is of no fixed abode, had his 16-week suspended sentence activated and was given an additional four months for his latest offences.