Jake Coxon, 23, (arriving at Manchester Crown Court) stole £3,000 worth of designer clothes from Selfridges
A Selfridges wine salesman who stole £3,000 of designer clothes to fund his drug habit has been jailed for three years.
Jake Coxon, 23, swiped designer clothing from the upmarket department store’s Manchester branch, before selling them on the black market.
He was caught when store managers noticed that a substantial amount of stock had gone missing and installed secret cameras.
Over a two week period they filmed Coxon helping himself to designer Moncler t-shirts, gilets and jackets.
He hid the garments down his trousers and then took them back to his counter at the wine department, where he used a device to remove the security tags.
But he was caught after managers who noticed £3,000 worth of stock had gone missing, secretly installed spy cameras around the stockrooms to catch the culprit.
Coxon, from Hyde in Greater Manchester, was a talented sportsman and had previously played in the Under 18s squad of the Irish Exiles rugby team.
However, he gave up his sporting career due to injury and became a drug dealer offering to supply cocaine, cannabis, benzos and ketamine to friends.
One text message he sent to a contact named ‘Big Dog Ruth’ claimed he would sell Benzos to ‘gimpy kids he could bully’.
But despite his arrogance, Coxon, who is now an apprentice technician at a dental laboratory, sobbed as he admitted fraud, theft and offering to supply or possessing Class A, Class B and Class C drugs, at Manchester Crown Court.
Prosecuting, Nicola Caroll said the investigation at Selfridges began in October 2016 after senior staff noticed missing items had been put on eBay.
She said: ‘There is no evidence that this defendant was involved in that.
Wine salesman Coxon (pictured) swiped the designer garments from the Selfridges stock room, before removing security tags at his desk, and selling them on the black market
However, the store installed a covert camera in the stock rooms and, between the February 2 – 15 this year, clothing items from Moncler were going missing.
‘The cover camera caught the defendant taking stock on a number of occasions.’
On February 3 Coxon was seen in the menswear stockroom taking two t-shirts worth £110 and hiding them down his trousers.
The following day he was seen to back to the stock room on various occasions taking a gilet worth £440 and two more t-shirts before making a further trip to take another gilet.
On February 10 he attempted to steal three more t-shirts but another member of staff came in and he had to put the items back.
Coxon then returned when the coast was clear, stole a jacket worth £395, and put it on, with his own jacket on top of it.
He stole another t-shirt worth £110 on February 15 and was seen to conceal it in his trousers.
Coxon (pictured) , 23, was also a drug dealer, supply cocaine, cannabis, ketamine and benzos
Miss Caroll said: ‘He was seen on CCTV taking the items to the shop floor and taking them back to his own wine department and using the de-tagging device to remove the tag from the t-shirt.
‘It is the thought that he did this with all of the items that he took.
‘On the 12 February he was serving customers on the Ralph Lauren till and was serving a man who was his nephew.
‘He sold his nephew a jacket that had a price tag of £750 but he sold it for £395. His nephew returned later that day and was given a refund of £395 but for a different jacket so the profit stolen was for £750.
As a result the operations manageress at Selfridges interviewed the defendant.
‘During that interview he denied any wrongdoing but the manageress said to him ”I had hoped you would be honest but clearly you are not”.
Coxon was later arrested and told police they would find cannabis and amphetamines in his BMW, which had personalised plates.
His car was searched and a Mont Blanc jacket was recovered, along with two mobile phones a white Samsung and an old Nokia.
Police confiscated a total of 35g worth of cannabis, with a street value of between £360 to £720.
Coxon (arriving at court) sobbed as he admitted theft, fraud and drug dealing and jailed for three years
Benzo tablets were also found in the car, at a street value of between £360 and £730, along with mixing agents and a quantity of Ketamine.
In a prepared statement Coxon told police the cannabis was intended for him and for his friends and it was not for supply.
He also said that he would repay Selfridges. His lawyer Chudi Grant said: ‘His issues with drugs started because he was hopeful to pursue a professional rugby career. He had injuries because of a subsequent accident.
‘His career didn’t turn out the way he had hoped and he found resonance and comfort in drugs. He began to rise through the ranks of different drugs, to cocaine and harder drugs.
‘He was a young man struggling to come to terms with the loss of his career and he also struggled with it and he started to self harm.
‘He fell into debt because of the money he was failing to pay for his drugs. Earlier this year he did inform the police that he was being threatened for them money that the he owed.
‘He has genuine remorse, he knows that he abused the trust of his position and has gone to seek help for his drug issues.’
But Judge Martin Rudland said Coxon was still yet to sell his car to pay back what he owed.
He told him: ‘It is a great tragedy that you are in the dock at a crown court.
‘You are clearly capable and resourceful and yet you have chosen to deploy that ability in criminal enterprise.
‘It seems that you fell into debt to the people you were buying drugs from, which is forever a murky situation. But this was a well organised enterprise for gain and to pay off debts which you had accustomed.
‘Selfridges is a high end retail store with high price items and it is clear that you were caught because of the security systems it set up due to the losses of around £30,000.
‘You’re not being sentenced for that loss but the inference is clear. The aim was to find out who was doing it – and it was you.
‘Multiple times you were captured taking items from the menswear stockroom which you had no business being.’