A vacuum cleaner thief was urged by a circuit judge to clean up his act.

James Duffy, 37, walked into Sainsbury’s in Witney on October 5 last year – and walked out with the £80 hoover.

That put him in breach of an 18 month suspended jail sentence, imposed almost a year earlier for burglary and theft of a Henry vacuum cleaner, Vax carpet cleaner and a hand-held steam cleaner.

He returned to Oxford Crown Court on Monday – having spent the best part of two months in prison on remand – to be sentenced for the theft, failing to turn up at the magistrates’ court and breaching the suspended sentence.

Judge Maria Lamb activated only 14 months of the 18 month jail sentence after being told Duffy had successfully completed the 16 week curfew. She added two months for the new offences.

The court heard that Duffy, of Curbridge Road, Witney, was expected to be released on licence almost immediately.

He had served around seven months on remand in late 2020 and 2021 awaiting sentencing for the burglaries and, when the time on remand since last November was taken into account, he had effectively served his sentence.

Speaking directly to the man in the dock, Judge Lamb told him: “Really you’re your own worst enemy, aren’t you?

“I hope you manage to make a go of it this time, because otherwise you’re going to find yourself coming back before these courts.

“This time you were in danger of spending longer on remand, because of your situation, than you perhaps would have done otherwise.”

She added in a parting shot: “Come on, at your age you’ve got to put it behind you.”

Earlier, Duffy’s barrister Bethan Chichester said her client had been living in Lancaster after his release from prison in 2021 and doing well.

However, he had to move back to Oxfordshire from the north of England and fell back in with ‘unsuitable characters’.

He ‘fell back into the grips of drug use’, Ms Chichester said. Duffy had stolen the vacuum cleaner from Sainsbury’s in order to fund his drug habit.

She reminded the judge that the defendant pleaded guilty to the theft at the earliest opportunity. The shoplifting offence was ‘summary only’ – usually dealt with at the magistrates’ court – and Judge Lamb could only impose up to six months’ imprisonment.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

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