Former barber stole aftershave to buy drugs in Mansfield

Matthew Aspinall was spotted on CCTV as he left without making any attempt to pay for the aftershave, worth £92, on July 28, from the Four Seasons centre store.

He was arrested shortly afterwards and told police he sold them to buy drugs, said prosecutor Leanne Townshead.

Aspinall, 32, of Waterson Avenue, admitted theft when he appeared before Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Monday.

The court heard he had 43 previous dishonesty offences, and last appeared in court in November 2016, when he was given a six month community order.

Probation officer Cheryl Nisbett said he had a “long history of drug use going back to his twenties”, with periods of abstinence but had recently relapsed.

“He was working fairly long hours in a barber’s and he missed his pick-up prescription and as a consequence it was stopped,” she said.

“On July 28 he went into town with no intention of stealing but clearly temptation got the better of him.”

Richard Etherington, mitigating, said Aspinall had a “substantial criminal history”.

He was a mechanic in London and fell into heroin use, before moving back to Nottingham, where he offended regularly between 2010 and 2011.

He rented a barber shop in Mansfield but it folded last year after a “huge increase in the business rates” and later found a job in a barber’s shop, but had recently been sacked.

He was given a 12 month comunity order with ten rehabilitation sessions and 40 hours of unpaid work. He was ordered to pay £92 compensation to Boots.