A MAN who repeatedly stole from a convenience store over a 18-month period has avoided jail.

Graham Ridealgh, 51, accumulated numerous charges of theft after stealing goods from the Co-op store in Belle Vue Road, Southbourne, between August 2022 and February of this year.

He stole seven bottles of wine to the value of £50 from the store on February 6, and food items to the value of £239.50 on August 17 last year.

He stole household items to the value of £121.50 on August 12, 2023, food items to the value of £241 on May 29, 2023, food items to the value of £120.25 on January 21, 2023, and household items and coffee to the value of £107.75 on August 29, 2023.

Also last year, the defendant stole food items to the value of £44 on August 24, food items to the value of £60 on April 2, food items to the value of £239.50 on August 17, and six cases of Peroni beer to the value of £36.90 on September 2.

In 2022, he stole food items to the value of £196 on September 5, food items to the value of £79.75 on September 18, and food items to the value of £166 on August 17.

Ridealgh, of Warwick Road in Bournemouth, appeared at Poole Magistrates’ Court on Friday, March 1, to be sentenced for the thefts.

He was also sentenced for possessing a pocket knife in a public place in Bournemouth on October 25 last year and three counts of burglary which related to him going behind the counter in the Co-op on December 12, 2023, and January 10 and 12 of this year.

There was a fail to answer to court charge too, after Ridealgh did not surrender to Poole Magistrates' Court on February 26, having been released on bail.

Ridealgh admitted all of these additional charges.

The defendant was handed a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.