Dudley sneak thief spared jail
A man who sneaked into a shopping centre when it was closed before stealing a haul of jewellery and cash has avoided an immediate jail term.
Mark Edge broke into Dudley's Merry Hill shopping centre twice in eight days to steal goods to feed a drug habit.
He crawled under sheeting covering the Bag Magic stall to take £100 in notes and coins from the till float at around 10.20pm on August 8.
Eight days later, the 29-year-old broke through the same door and lurked under another of the stalls until 3am.
Security officers watched on CCTV as he emerged from the Watch Surgery on August 16.
Dudley Magistrates Court heard he had taken 289 watches, 50 rings and two charms and £28.44 in cash. His burglary was foiled when security staff managed to catch him.
But just days later Edge turned shoplifter when he made off with £150 worth of curtains from BHS at Merry Hill on October 4.
Edge, of Dunns Bank, Quarry Bank, admitted two counts of burglary and one charge of theft at an earlier hearing.
Edge was given 12 weeks' imprisonment suspended for 12 months to be served concurrently for the burglaries. He was also given a four-week jail term suspended for 12 months to be served consecutively. His defence said he was changing his life.
