A man who targeted jewellery stores, a coroners court and a hospital car park in a crime spree has avoided jail. Elliott Harrison, 38, first came to the attention of the police when he went into the Pandora store in the Arndale Centre.
He asked to see a bracelet and as it was placed on his wrist he walked out the store - along with the bracelet worth £510. Later that day on May 25 this year he went into the Pandora store in the Merseyway shopping centre, in Stockport, and did the same thing with a bracelet worth £595, prosecutor Gareth Hughes said.
Harrison, of Stockport, went back to the same Pandora store but members of staff recognised him and alerted security staff who spooked him before he could continue. He has since pleaded guilty to two counts of theft.
On June 1, whilst at Stockport Coroner’s Court, the police were called after Harrison became aggressive, and began banging his fists on the reception desk, Mr Hughes said. As the receptionist moved towards the back room he threw a can of Red Bull at her. Fortunately she was behind the door when it struck.
“Another employee was notified by the receptionist as she needed help. He goes into the reception area and sees the defendant acting extremely aggressively and threatening to burn the building down,” the prosecutor said.
The police were called and identified Harrison as he had left his phone behind. He pleaded guilty to criminal damage for damage to a fire extinguisher and common assault against the receptionist.
Then between May 24 and early June, damage was caused to 16 cars and property at a hospital in Stockport. “A number of vehicles had been damaged, in that they were spray painted with the initials ‘DJMD’. Also on a storage container there was simply the word ‘Levi’ or ‘EL’,” Mr Hughes said.
Police checked the CCTV footage from the car park and identified Harrison, who had earlier caused similar damage to the walls on a ward he had been staying on.
The hospital trust estimated the total value for repairing the damage was around £3,000. Out of the 16 cars damaged, police were able to speak with two of the owners who both said they were able to deal with the graffiti at home using cleaning materials, but they had both been inconvenienced, Mr Hughes said.
Harrison was said to have previous convictions for criminal damage on May 26, and before that his last offence was for possession of an offensive weapon, for which he was jailed for five years.
Mitigating, Sam Corcoran said Harrison had been diagnosed with a ‘schizoaffective disorder’ and had stopped taking his medication at the time. She said his drug use had escalated and that contributed to his mental ill health.
“He himself says he is definitely in a much improved mental state since his remand in custody. He does have insight into the impact drugs have on his mental health,” she added.
Harrison, of Royal George Street, was handed 16 weeks imprisonment which was suspended for 18 months, 25 days of rehabilitation activity requirements and a 12 month mental health order. He was also ordered to pay £100 compensation to the two car owners who police were able to speak to, £400 to the hospital trust and £100 to the Coroner’s Court.
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