Homeless Chesterfield man spent £25 in McDonald's on stolen bank card 'because he was starving'

Craig Dickson had denied the charges and faced a trial on January 28 but failed to attend and was found guilty in his absence, Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court was told on Monday, February 24.

Dickson, 34, found the cards and spent £25 on food in McDonalds, and spent £42 in a service station, said Becky Allsop, prosecuting.

Following his trial, he was subsequently arrested for breaching bail, which he also admitted and produced before the court.

She said: “The circumstances are that overnight on September 15, a theft occurred where bank cards were stolen from a motor vehicle. It’s not suggested that he stole the cards, but he was identified from CCTV using the cards to buy food from the McDonalds on Derby Road, and a service station. He had denied the charges, claiming a case of mistaken identity.”

Dickson had been released from prison on November 23 from a sentence that had been imposed after the card frauds, but had been homeless at the time and got the trial dates mixed up, the court heard.

Mitigating, Serena Simpson, said that Dickson, who has a long-standing heroin and crack cocaine problem, was currently staying with a friend in Longcroft Close, Chesterfield.

“He told me that at the time of the trial he was going through a fairly chaotic time in his life,” she said.

“He mixed the dates up and knew he should have attended, and he decided to put his head in the sand a little bit.”He tells me that he found the cards on the floor and made the decision to go to McDonald’s because he was homeless and starving at the time, so he used them to buy food and other essential items.”

Magistrates gave Dickson a total of nine weeks in prison, but suspended the sentence for 12 months.

A further six rehabilitation activity days were added to an existing community order, and Dickson was ordered to pay £100 costs and a £122 victim surcharge.