A man who stole a coat worth £1,150 from a Douglas shop has been handed a new suspended sentence.

Jonathan Edward Myers was already subject to a previous suspended sentence when he committed the latest theft.

The thefts were said to have been committed to fund Myers’ drug use.

High Bailiff Jayne Hughes sentenced him to a new suspended sentence, of 14 weeks custody, suspended for two years, and also made him the subject of a two-year suspended sentence supervision order.

We previously reported that 40-year-old Myers, who lives at Glashen Terrace in Ballasalla, entered Flannels in the Strand Shopping Centre on August 13.

He was recognised by staff due to being on a Shopwatch list, a scheme that shares information between stores about potential shoplifters.

Myers was seen carrying a Canada Goose coat, valued at £1,150.

The security tags had been taken off the coat and staff challenged Myers as he tried to leave, and took the coat from him.

He left the store but CCTV footage was viewed later which showed Myers removing the security tags and putting them in a shoe which was on a shoe display.

He was arrested in Strand Street and when interviewed at police headquarters, claimed he could not remember the incident.

After being shown the CCTV footage, he then claimed the door alarm kept going off for no reason but still denied trying to steal anything.

He said staff had asked him to leave the store because he was on the Shopwatch list.

In court, Myers also asked, via his advocate, for a second offence, of an attempted theft from Boots the chemist, to be taken into consideration during sentencing.

Myers was subject to a suspended sentence at the time of this latest offence, imposed in March for stealing Smart toothbrushes and a Braun shaver from Boots. Read our report about that here.

Defence advocate David Reynolds said that Myers had been to a rehabilitation facility in the UK for a detox program since his previous suspended sentence.

‘Unfortunately he struggled with diazepam addiction and has been dependent on it since the age of 14.

‘The main aim was to come off his addiction to heroin.

‘He says he is no longer taking heroin. His only med is prescription diazepam.’

Mr Reynolds said that Myers had been offered work as a scaffolder and was receiving assistance from probation.

‘Hopefully this will prevent him from continually being before the court,’ said the advocate.

‘There is a robust plan in place with probation.’

A probation report assessed Myers as a high risk of reoffending but low risk of harm to others.

High Bailiff Mrs Hughes gave him credit for his guilty plea and said: ‘The offence was doomed to failure given you are well known in Flannels and Boots.

‘You have an extremely lengthy history of previous convictions of a similar nature.’

Myers was also ordered to pay £50 prosecution costs by December 21.