'Mad Dog' avoids jail for market metal theft

A former guest on the Jeremy Kyle show has avoided an immediate jail term after stealing thousands of pounds worth of metal frames from the now-defunct Brownhills Market.

Deon Hulse stole seven metal market stall frames worth £3,500, while on police bail for a drugs crime, Walsall Magistrates Court heard.

The 29-year-old, of Brownhills, who has a skull tattoo on his face and is known as 'Mad Dog', was also being sentenced for possessing cannabis with intent to supply at a hearing yesterday.

Mrs Jo Taylor, prosecuting, said police raided his home in Lindon Road on July 15 last year and found £280 worth of cannabis under a mattress and inside a wardrobe and Quality Street tin.

But after being arrested for the drugs offence and released on police bail, he became involved in the theft. Mrs Taylor said police saw a Ford Transit travelling the wrong way along Silver Street in Brownhills on the evening of October 25. Officers later saw the vehicle parked and a man trying to tie down pieces of metal.

Mrs Taylor said the man fled, leaving Hulse stood by the vehicle. Police discovered the metal to be market stall frames and inquiries discovered they had been used at Brownhills Market before it shut down in the summer. They belonged to Walsall Council and had been taken from a storage facility in Silver Street.

Hulse, who has previously appeared on The Jeremy Kyle Show on an episode called How could my boyfriend destroy his own face?, admitted both charges.

Mr Brij Choudhury, defending, said he had been keeping the cannabis for a friend while he was on holiday and intended to give it back.

He said: "There was no commercial gain. There were no assets or evidence the defendant was living beyond his means."

Mr Choudhury said Hulse was pressured into stealing the market stall frames by the friend whose cannabis was seized in the raid.

Hulse was handed an eight-week prison sentence for the theft and four weeks for the drugs offence. Both were suspended for 12 months and will run concurrently. He was also given a 12-month supervision order, told to pay £85 costs and an order was made to destroy the drugs.