South Yorkshire spice smoker robbed his own mum for tobacco

Peter Mullins approached his care worker mother in a branch of Asda in Doncaster and said: "Mum, I want some baccy," at 10.50am on June 11 last year.

Prosecutor Ian West described how the 45-year-old followed her outside to her car, and stopped her from closing the door while demanding money.

He grabbed her arms and pushed her back with his full body weight, pinning her to the seat and rifling through the car, before taking "a pack of tobacco containing the equivalent of four cigarettes."

Mullins also grabbed a £19 blue quilted jacket and tried to snatch her mobile phone, but his mum managed to stop him.

"There is a history of him annoying his mother and nagging her for money and tobacco," Mr West said.

"I am constantly looking through the window in case he turns up," his mother said in a statement, adding that his behaviour impacted her family and her husband's health.

Mullins, who has no previous convictions, failed to turn up to court on July 17 and was finally arrested in November.

He was cautioned for violence in 2001 and 2005, and has been in custody for 11 weeks.

Michael Cane-Soothill, mitigating, said: "The remand may have done him a considerable amount of good.

"He was certainly using spice or synthetic cannabis every day and he couldn't afford it on benefits. He would scrounge from the public, his mother and his family.

"He is now clean of drugs and wants to apologise. He wants to maintain his drug-free status."

Mr Cane-Soothill said Mullins suffers from epilepsy and this wasn't helped by using spice.

Mullins, of no fixed abode, and formerly of Warmsworth Road, Doncaster, pleaded guilty to robbery and failing to surrender.

Recorder Taryn Turner said: "You have caused your family a great deal of heartache over the past few years. You have caused your mother psychological harm. You are no doubt a cause of considerable anxiety to your family."

She said he would be serving a sentence in “extreme circumstances” because of Covid-19. Mullins received 19 months in prison. No restraining order has been made.

Read the latest cases from Sheffield Crown Court here.

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