Ashley Hickson burgled salon days after prison reprieve

Ashley Hickson had avoided immediate custody in October last year for an offence of conveying mobile phones and cannabis into a prison.

This offence involved the use of drones, Bournemouth Crown Court heard.

However, less than 10 days after not being sent behind bars, Hickson smashed his way into Daim’s Salon in Commercial Road, Bournemouth, at around 5.45am on October 28, 2020.

Prosecuting, Jodie Hitchcock said the premises had been left secured at around 8pm the previous day.

The barrister said the salon is equipped with motion activated CCTV, which alerted the owner through their mobile phone that something had been detected.

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The owner ended up seeing a live feed of the defendant kicking the front door glass panel. Once inside Hickson took the till and left by the same means as he entered.

“The till was found in a doorway down the road but £70 within the till had been taken,” said Ms Hitchcock.

The defendant, 27 and of West Hill Road, Bournemouth, was identified from CCTV by a police constable.

Ashley Hickson was jailed by Judge Robert Pawson

Hickson, who had 55 previous convictions for 132 offences, admitted burglary as well as two offences of shoplifting relating to incidents at Co-op in Colehill on November 4 and a Dorchester BP Garage on October 5.

He was also sentenced for breaching the suspended sentence order which was made in October 2020.

Mitigating, Kevin Hill said Hickson had a “very bad record”, but told the court that the defendant had been through “a more difficult time of it than many”.

Mr Hill said following a challenging personal situation, Hickson “simply went out of control” which led to the offences having done “rather better” prior to that.

“He hit the drugs and alcohol very hard,” said Mr Hill. “His mental health was an absolute mess in his own words.”

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Judge Robert Pawson said the probation service assessed the defendant as having a high risk of reoffending and being “unmanageable within the community”.

Hickson received a four-month sentence for the burglary and two-week and one-month concurrent sentences for the thefts.

The suspended sentence of 18 months was implemented in full to bring the overall sentence to 22 months imprisonment.