Judge asks Sheffield charity box thief: “How low can you go?”

Lee Wragg broke into Costa Coffee, on Brightside Lane, between 7.25pm and 7.55pm, on December 7, last year, said prosecutor Robert Sandford.

He stole £10 in tips and around £50 from a charity box, as well as causing £500 to £700 of damage to the door he forced open.

A week later, he stole a purse from a staff room at the Northern General Hospital, while the owner was on a night shift.

He took £27 in cash and a bank card, which he used to buy £40 of Jack Daniels whisky.

Wragg and another man later forced open every locker in a staff changing room at the Crowne Plaza hotel, on Victoria Station Road, before stealing a lap-top, knives and a bottle of vodka from the kitchen office.

They stole £20 in cash and used bank cards to buy £27 of booze and cigarettes, as well as £10 of food from McDonald's.

Wragg has 34 previous convictions for 108 offences, dating back to 1994.

Mr Sandford said it would take 45 minutes to recite all Wragg's convictions, but the majority were for burglary and theft.

"All rehabilitative efforts attempted by the courts have failed," he said. "Last year he spent 32 weeks in custody."

James Gould, mitigating, said Wragg was released from prison last year with limited support, and fell back into drug abuse.

"He's intent on making good progress," Mr Gould said. "His resolve is high to stay out of trouble."

Wragg, 44, of Grimesthorpe Road, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary and four counts of fraud, at Sheffield Magistrates Court, on January 2.

Judge David Dixon told him: "All you want is what you want for you, year after year. That's what you have done either by shoplifting, burglary or, on some occasions, robbery."

He described the theft of the tips and donations as "mean and despicable" and asked: "How low can you go?"

"You're a menace," he said, on January 23, sentencing Wragg to 30 months.