Former Irish League footballer Darren Moore sentenced for shoplifting items worth £1,000 including Yankee Candles and alcohol
A former Irish League footballer previously convicted of stealing 20 legs of lamb from a shop has been back before a court and sentenced for stealing Yankee Candles, alcohol, meat and groceries worth almost £1,000.
Darren Moore (54), with an address listed as Warden Square in Ballymena, was before the town's magistrates' court via video link from prison.
On two days in May this year he stole £482 worth of items from Tesco including Yankee Candles.
He took spirits worth £402 from Tesco on July 7 this year; meat and toiletries worth £54 from Robinson's Supermarket in Ballymena on August 28; and meat worth £42 from Robinson's on September 3 this year.
He had also driven whilst disqualified and without insurance on August 28.
When Moore was at court for previous matters, including the legs of lamb incident, a defence barrister had said the defendant had a "chronic addiction to crack cocaine".
He said the defendant had been stealing items to sell on to fund his drug habit.
The lawyer said when Moore was young he had the opportunity to play football for Millwall in London and after going over for six months he was "successful" but he missed home.
When he returned to Northern Ireland he "got himself involved in matters relating to The Troubles and from that he has unfortunately spent periods of time in and out of custody and the irony is that the lifestyle he now leads is because the area in which he grew up in he has been expelled from, and that is being polite to the people who would have been former friends, former associates, who have now told him where he can and cannot go".
A defence lawyer told Thursday's Court, Moore had a "very desperate addiction to drugs".
He said the defendant is "extremely remorseful and embarrassed and ashamed of his behaviour".
The barrister said Moore has been "trying to turn his life around" and in custody he had engaged with a drug addiction service.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said they had been high value thefts "no doubt driven by a chronic addiction to drugs".
He said Moore had already spent the equivalent of a two months prison term on remand and "on balance" he was persuaded to give him an eight months prison term, suspended for two years.
He also put the defendant on Probation for a year with a condition to take part in any drugs treatment or counselling programme. The defendant was also banned from driving for two years.