Leigh Park violent shoplifter demanded 'let me go mush' after being tackled to the ground in Havant

Leigh Park man Dale Shiers, 30, was trying to flee Spar with stolen goods when shop owner Bhavin Patel gave chase and stopped him.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard the thief told Mr Patel: ‘Let go of me or I’ll stab you.’

Concerned members of the public urged the shop worker to do so - before firing a racist term at Mr Patel.

Shiers, who has 49 convictions for 97 offences, has been jailed for 31 months after a judge heard the effect of the racist abuse.

Mr Patel told the court: ‘I’m left really saddened about what has happened to me but mostly the comments that were made to me.’

‘I see this country as my home.’

The Indian-born shopkeeper added: ‘I feel part of the community and get on with most of the local people and I don’t feel those comments should’ve been made to me.

‘It’s upsetting when these comments do get thrown around and it hurts when they’re said.’

Judge Roger Hetherington said the shop worker ‘bravely and rightly’ challenged Shiers by grabbing the shopping basket containing Stella Artois can he took.

Shiers was ‘in the grip of drug addiction’ and would carry on offending to fund his class A drug addiction,’ the judge said.

The court heard how a police officer spotted Shiers running from Next in Havant on January 12 last year with an ‘armful of clothing’ worth £214 at 3.10pm.

A member of the public tackled him to the ground before the officer could stop him with Shiers swearing. He said: ‘You’ve got the stuff back, let me go mush.’

When the officer got to him Shiers was ‘twisting and turning to escape’ with his ‘eyes bulging and veins in his neck showing’. He was ‘pumped up’ and ‘looked like he was preparing for a fight,’ prosecutor Gareth Burrows said.

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The officer suffered a graze to his right hand and bruise to his right thumb.

Two days before, Shiers had stolen £119 worth of spirits from Waitrose in Petersfield. A store manager spotted him leaving and alerted nearby police who stopped him in a car.

William Goss, for Shiers, said he was a carer for his partner whose mother had died a day before he was sentenced.

Mr Goss said his drug and alcohol addictions were ‘ingrained’ and were a ‘disease’. He added his client did not have a weapon in the robbery.

For Shiers, who has depression, it’s ‘almost impossible to function as a normal adult,’ he said.

Shiers, who has since moved to Priors Leaze Lane, in Hambrook, West Sussex, admitted the robbery on July 12 in 2019, the two shopliftings and assaulting an emergency worker. He was sentenced last month.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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