Jail for man who stole cameras

A FATHER-TO-BE is beginning an eight-month prison term after being sentenced for burglary and driving offences.

Gavin Friston, 33, of Undercliff Road West, Felixstowe, pleaded guilty to stealing cameras worth £1,449 from Argos earlier this year.

He also admitted driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.

Sandra Dyer, prosecuting, told South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court that Friston was already serving a two-month suspended sentence for driving while disqualified when police stopped him on May 23.

She said he had run from the car and hid in a bush before he was arrested by officers.

In a separate incident on March 20, Friston also broke into the Argos store in Hamilton Road, Felixstowe and stole a number of digital cameras.

In that incident he was accompanied by his brother Craig Friston, who is already serving a four-month prison sentence for the offence.

The brothers were part of a gang of three who smashed the front window of the shop with a paving slab before using a television to smash a glass cabinet containing the cameras.

John Hughes, mitigating, said Friston had committed the burglary when he was struggling for money.

He said: "He has a pregnant girlfriend whose baby is due on July 22.

"This was a period of time when money was very difficult and he accepts he drifted back into his ways of the past and was involved in this offence.

"In respect of driving while disqualified, he said the car was due to be sold the following day. He had taken it to the car wash so it was good enough to sell.

"He accepts this was the wrong thing to do and when he was stopped by the police, he panicked and ran off."

Mr Hughes asked the court to take Friston's pending fatherhood into consideration and give him a reduced sentence so he could be with the baby soon after the birth.

But magistrates sentenced Friston to eight months in prison and endorsed his driving licence with eight penalty points.