News / Serial offender’s second chance
A SERIAL offender with a history of drug abuse who has spent the past few years going in and out of jail has been given a chance to break his cycle of offending.
Adam Nelson, of 24 Sandside, Mossbank, pled guilty to resetting jewellery worth £1,000, when he appeared at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
The court heard Nelson had bought an expensive item for £100, knowing that it had been stolen, in what his defence agent Gregor Kelly called “ a fool’s bargain”.
Police had come across the 24 year old at Lerwick’s Chapel Lane on 6 January and found the jewellery on him, which he said he had bought for his sister.
Sentence for this was delayed until he had served a four month prison sentence for stealing two bottles of spirits from a local supermarket.||
Kelly said Nelson had a history of dabbling in drugs and been offending since he was 16 years old, when he lived in Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, where he grew up.
The agent said he had been receiving on average two convictions a year, often coming out of prison only to face a charge for something he had done before he went inside, as was the case this time.
Mr Kelly urged Sheriff Philip Mann to break this vicious cycle, saying that he detected a sea change in Nelson’s attitude.
He was receiving support from substance misuse workers, had not tested positively for drugs other than methadone, which he is prescribed, and on one occasion valium.
He was receiving help with psychological issues he had been carrying since childhood and had now held down his fish factory job for a full five weeks, which the lawyer described as “an embryonic start”.
Kelly also pointed out that Nelson had not received any form of social work intervention since 2005, having either been tagged or jailed since then.
The sheriff accepted his invitation to take “a leap of faith” and placed him under supervision for one year during which he must complete 200 hours voluntary work.
Sheriff Mann said: “It seems to me that I should at least give that a try because if that results in you seeing the error of your ways then everybody wins out of that situation, not just yourself.” However he warned Nelson that any breach of the order would land him straight back behind bars.
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