Immigrant in charity theft sentenced

A man who drove around Brownhills picking up charity bags destined for Kidney Research UK has been ordered to carry out unpaid work.

Lithuanian Dmitris Scigol, aged 25, of Aylesford Road, Handsworth, illegally collected bags put together by residents and left outside their homes for charity.

He was convicted of theft after a trial at Walsall Magistrates Court last month.

Scigol and an accomplice, Ronaldas Stasinkas, who did not attend the trial and was convicted in his absence, were spotted by an off-duty police officer in Dunnerdale Road, Clayhanger, on October 30 last year.

The officer contacted the beat team for the area and when they stopped the vehicle in nearby Bradford Road, they discovered bags for Kidney Research UK.

The pair denied theft but were convicted after a trial. When interviewed by police Scigol, who moved to Britain just over two months before the offence, said he had been recruited by his friend and believed he was collecting bags for charity.

It was claimed he had been to the area dropping off bags and leaflets several days beforehand and then come back for collections. He then picked up any of the bags that were left out even if they were different.

Sentencing Scigol to 150 hours of unpaid work and ordering him to pay £200 costs, Deputy District Judge Bernard Begley told him: "You were found guilty after a trial.

"That puts you in a somewhat worse position than if you had pleaded guilty. I am fully aware of how my colleagues viewed the seriousness of this case, but it is I who now deals with the question of sentence.

"I have to take in to account the language difficulty, the fact that this is a first offence in this country, and although you have been found guilty after a trial, there may have been a level of misunderstanding by you."

Mr David Nash, defending, said: "He is actively looking for work and is willing, if not desperate, to work. That's his whole reason for coming to the UK."

He said Scigol, who heard the proceedings through a Russian interpreter, has about £500 in savings left, which he is living off with the "generosity of other Lithuanian friends".

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of 23-year-old Stasinkas, of Whitehall Road, Small Heath.