Thief who unlawfully had knives in Sainsbury’s could be deported

A 63-year-old Lithuanian national living in Spalding was led away from court in handcuffs to face possible deportation.

Kestutis Kisielius was appearing before magistrates in Boston today (Wednesday) to plead guilty to
having a folding pocket knife with a 9.5cm blade on him in Sainsbury’s in Holland Market, Spalding.

The court heard that Kisielius also had with him a kitchen knife with a 10.5cm blade which he had
stolen minutes before from the neighbouring Wilko store.

He used one of the knives to cut the security tag off a £27 bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin and steal
the drink.

Prosecutor Nick Todd said Kisielius went into Wilko at about 1.50pm on March 10 to steal the
kitchen knife and about 15 minutes later was seen on CCTV in Sainsbury’s carrying out the second
theft.

“He appears to have left the store and then came back and was detained by a member of staff,”
added Mr Todd. “Police arrived and not only the kitchen knife from Wilko but a pocket knife was
found.”

Kisielius, of Water Lane, pleaded guilty to possession of a knife blade in a public place and two
counts of theft.

In mitigation, Helen Coney said: “He had this pocket knife not knowing it was unlawful.”

He had not produced either knife to cause distress to anyone, said Miss Coney, adding: “He only
came to the attention of police because of the thefts.”

Presiding magistrate David Milner-Scudder told Kisielius that the starting point for his punishment
was custody but that was not appropriate given the defendant’s circumstances.

He was handed a four-week sentence, suspended for six months. There was no separate penalty for
the thefts.