Sheffield drug-user with a £200 a day addiction burgled businesses and stole from shops

By Jon Cooper
Published 29th Dec 2022, 00:02 BST
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A drug addict who was spending £200 a day on heroin and crack cocaine has been jailed after he committed a spate of commercial burglaries and shop thefts.

Aaron Fewkes, aged 23, of no fixed abode, admitted committing four commercial burglaries around July, August and September as well as three shop thefts, causing criminal damage, possessing heroin and breaching a previously imposed community order.

Defence barrister Chris Aspinall said: “He has led in the past few years an addictive, chaotic lifestyle and he has never managed for a sustained period to wean himself off the use of class A drugs. The drugs involved are crack-cocaine and heroin.

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“He tells me at the height of his offending in August and September, this year, he was using anything up to £200 a day of heroin and crack cocaine in approximate equal quantities – so £100 of each.”

Pictured is Aaron Fewkes, aged 23, of no fixed abode, who was sentenced at Doncaster Crown Court to two years and one month of custody after he admitted four commercial burglaries, three shop thefts, causing criminal damage, possessing heroin and breaching a community order which had previously been imposed for a shoplifting theft.Pictured is Aaron Fewkes, aged 23, of no fixed abode, who was sentenced at Doncaster Crown Court to two years and one month of custody after he admitted four commercial burglaries, three shop thefts, causing criminal damage, possessing heroin and breaching a community order which had previously been imposed for a shoplifting theft.
Pictured is Aaron Fewkes, aged 23, of no fixed abode, who was sentenced at Doncaster Crown Court to two years and one month of custody after he admitted four commercial burglaries, three shop thefts, causing criminal damage, possessing heroin and breaching a community order which had previously been imposed for a shoplifting theft.

Mr Aspinall added that the source of Fewkes’ offending has been his drug-addiction and once he decides to stay off drugs it is likely the courts will not see him again.

Fewkes, who has 29 convictions for 71 offences, pleaded guilty to four commercial burglaries including a kebab shop, DJ’s Sarnies in Sheffield, the Soap Loaf Company on Machon Bank in Nether Edge and a physiotherapist’s clinic on Abbeydale Road, Sheffield.

He also pleaded guilty to three shop thefts, causing criminal damage and possessing heroin as well as breaching a previously imposed community order relating to another shop theft.

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Mr Aspinall said Fewkes cannot remember anything from the last eight months because of drug abuse but since the defendant has been remanded in custody he has become more healthy in a prison environment.

He added: “It is clearly going to be down to Mr Fewkes to be determined to change because the only factor in life that causes him to appear before the courts is drugs. Once he makes the decision to stay off drugs it’s likely the courts will not see him again.”

The judge – Recorder Alex Menary sitting at Doncaster Crown Court – sentenced Fewkes to two years and one month of custody and made the defendant subject to a five-year Criminal Behaviour Order to help monitor and restrict any potential anti-social behaviour in the future.