Louth teenager with '˜no family to support him' stole from petrol station

Connor Tennyson, 18, formerly of Church Street but now of no fixed address, admitted stealing the power banks, worth £79, from the Esso petrol station in Newmarket between March 3 and 7, when he appeared at Skegness Magistrates’ Court on April 19.

Prosecuting, Dan Pietryka said Tennyson was identified on CCTV cameras going into the shop of the filling station and stealing the items and was arrested later and told officers he had stolen the items to raise cash to ‘pay for living expenses’.

Mitigating, Andrea Wilkes said there had been nothing premeditated about the theft and that Tennyson, who had no previous convictions, had no family since his mother and grandmother had both died in 2012, and since 2013 he had been living on and off with friends.

She said there had been a break in his benefits when he was switched from ESA to JSA and there had been a period when he had no money, and it was then he had stolen the power banks to pay his friends for his board.

Imposing a 12 month conditional discharge, the magistrates told Tennyson that under the circumstances he had ‘done well to keep out of trouble so far after all that’s happened to you’.

He was ordered to pay £79 compensation.