Thief who stole alcohol from Wigan Pier pleasure cruiser is jailed

Darren Kay had initially denied the raid on a Kittywake Canal Cruises boat on May 3, but then went missing and Wigan magistrates issued an arrest warrant.

After he was captured he returned to court to change his plea to guilty and also admit committing the crime while the subject of a suspended sentence handed down for stealing £336 worth of clothing from Marks and Spencer last November.

Sending him to prison for a total of 31 weeks, the magistrates’ chair told the 39-year-old from Scholes: “You have an appalling record of offending this was an extremely serious offence committed whilst subject to a suspended sentence of imprisonment.

“There was clearly an element of planning in this.”

Kay was also ordered to pay £120 to victim services.

Earlier this year Sean Chaplin, 38, of Brookhouse Flats, Scholes, was given a suspended jail term after admitting burgling the tour barge Elleswake at the Pier on May 2.

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