Rich businessman addicted to stealing leather jackets is jailed

A wealthy businessman addicted to stealing leather jackets has been jailed for his “strange obsession”. Iswarduth Nuckcheddy had 101 jackets – unworn and many still with security tags attached – worth £14,000 stashed at his home when police raided in February this year. Sheffield crown court heard the 54-year-old had £250,000 in the bank and lived in a mortgage-free detached home. But he had become bored after being made redundant in 2008.

His barrister, Simon Alexander, said: “He was lonely and bored at home. He received a substantial payout and has been living off the capital. He doesn’t need these jackets, he never wears them.” Nuckcheddy, of Worsbrough, near Barnsley, admitted two offences of theft and one of handling. Fiona Swain, ­prosecuting, said he stole two jackets from Debenhams at Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre on February 6 this year, then went to Leeds and stole two more two hours later.



After being given a community order by Leeds magistrates, just two days later on February 20 he was back at Debenhams in Sheffield stealing more leather jackets. His method was to try on a jacket then simply walk out of the store still wearing it. When police raided his home and found the jackets, he told officers he had just forgotten to pay for them.

Jailing him for six months on Tuesday, Judge Peter Kelson said: “You are plainly a persistent and obsessive stealer. “There is undoubtedly a ­strangeness about this case. You are 54 and it is a tragedy you are before the courts. You are a decent man who has led a decent life and developed of late a substantial problem.” But he added: “You have got to be punished to deter you from further offending.”