Father stole to pay for hospital treatment, court hears (From Salisbury Journal)

Father stole to pay for hospital treatment, court hears

1:12pm Friday 19th March 2010

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A FATHER stole thousands of pounds from a recreation club so he could send it to Thailand to pay for treatment for his sick child, a court heard.

Mark Yexley, 37, of Holloway Close, Amesbury, was charged with burglary after he broke into Boscombe Down Recreation Club in the early hours of February 16 last year and stole £4,250 from the safe.

At Salisbury Crown Court last Wednesday, he escaped jail after Judge John Dixon sentenced him to a year in prison, suspended for two years.

Lucy Davis, prosecuting, said police arrived at the scene four minutes after the alarm sounded and found the front door and internal doors were damaged.

Yexley, who has previous convictions for theft, was arrested on March 12, 2009 after blood found on some bags of coins left in the safe was traced back to him.

He initially denied playing any part in the burglary and could give no explanation as to why his blood was found at the scene. He pleaded guilty to the offence at a later court appearance.

Rebecca Austin, defending, said Yexley, moved to Thailand in 2000, where he met his wife. They started a bar business and had a baby together.

But the business failed and he moved back to the UK to find work and send money over to support his wife and daughter, now aged five, who has a lung condition and spends most of her time in hospital.

She is unable to fly due to the illness, though Yexley hopes to fly her to the UK for treatment here as soon as she is well enough.

“In Thailand, if you don’t have the money, you don’t get the treatment,” said Miss Austin. “He therefore stayed in this country in order to provide money so his daughter could get the treatment she required.

“He has never been able to go back to Thailand to see his daughter since he left in 2005.”

Since coming back to the UK, he has borrowed between £40,000 and £60,000 to send over to his daughter and came to rely on support from his father after friends stopped contacting him.

Miss Austin said Yexley admitted he was ashamed of stealing the money from the club, where his father regularly socialises.

“He knew it was wrong when he committed the crime,” she said, “he knew what he was doing was not right, but he thought his justification would make it all right and make it sit with his conscience.

“He is deeply ashamed of himself.”

As well as the suspended sentence, Yexley must carry out 140 hours of unpaid work and be supervised by the probation service for a year.

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