Marcin Rychlewski took three Royal British Legion appeal boxes from tills at a garden centre on November 12 last year but was spared jail
An immigrant thief who stole poppy collection boxes on Remembrance Sunday has avoided jail after telling a court he did not realise the significance of the fundraiser.
Marcin Rychlewski took three Royal British Legion appeal boxes from tills at a garden centre on November 12 last year.
The 40-year-old, a former employee at Wyevale’s Pennine Garden Centre in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, said he was upset when management cut his working hours.
He admitted burgling the Huddersfield Road garden centre when he took his partner there to attend a job interview.
But he claimed he didn’t realise the significance of the annual fundraising campaign.
Prosecutor Andy Wills told Kirklees magistrates that they arrived at 8.40am on the Sunday when the premises was still closed.
His partner was greeted by a member of staff and they went into the building together.
The door was left unlocked and Rychlewski followed a few minutes later, going straight to the till area.
Mr Wills said: ‘There were charity boxes situated on the tills and he initially tried to gain access to them there.
The 40-year-old, a former employee at Wyevale’s Pennine Garden Centre in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, claimed he did not realise the significance of the poppy appeal
‘This proved quite difficult so he decided to take them and concealed three poppy appeal boxes in his bag.
‘He tried to take two Marie Curie boxes but they were chained to the tills.’
Rychlewski, of Huddersfield, left via the same door and went back to his car to wait for his partner to finish her job interview.
Mr Wills told magistrates: ‘Members of staff were not aware of the offence taking place until later that day. Customers wanted to purchase poppies and provide a charity donation but because there were no boxes they realised something was not right.
‘A view of the CCTV showed the offence taking place in full and the defendant, being an ex-employee, was immediately identified.’
Rychlewski admitted taking the money and spending it, indicating that he had a grievance with his former employer, Mr Wills said.
He added: ‘The manager said that usually as an organisation they would collect £100 for the charity.
‘Given the date, the collection boxes would have been close to full.’
Magistrates were told that Rychlewski had nine previous offences to his name and was previously jailed while living in Poland.
The father-of-two moved from the country in 2015 and has lived permanently in the UK since, his solicitor Ian Whiteley said.
He explained: ‘It’s an offence that the court may view quite seriously because these were charity boxes for people who lost their lives in the war.
‘When he took them he didn’t know that they were poppy boxes and didn’t know the significance of that type of appeal.’
Chairman of the bench Santokh Khangura described the crime as ‘despicable.’
He said: ‘It’s not the actual monetary value but what it’s worth to the charity and for those reasons we think this has crossed the custody threshold.’
Magistrates jailed him for 18 weeks suspended for a year.
He must carry out 150 of unpaid work and pay £100 compensation to the Royal British Legion as well as £85 costs and £115 victim surcharge.