When Jake James Devereux stood in the dock last year to be sentenced for up-skirt filming, the court heard he was a low risk for reoffending.
However, the 27-year-old was just days away from embarking on a drug-driven shoplifting spree, in which he was stealing to order while under pressurefrom a gang, court documents revealed.
Devereux initially hit the headlines in 2019 when he pleaded guilty to five charges of making intimate visual recordings.
His application for name suppression, on the basis that his surname was shared by several prominent professionals in the city, was declined.
The Dunedin District Court heard the defendant was wandering around the CBD using his cellphone to film up women's skirts.
In October last year, another nine months was added after the court heard he presented a low risk of reoffending.
However, Devereux was back in court this week, where it emerged he had begun a month-long spree of thefts several days after the October sentencing.
Counsel Sophia Thorburn said her client had been living in a boarding house where he had been offered drugs by a new resident.
Once he was gripped by addiction and had no way of funding it, he began stealing to order for the gang which was supplying him.
Judge Josephine Bouchier noted that it got to the stage where Devereux's associates would drop him off at stores and wait for him outside while he pocketed goods.
Jake James Devereux. Photo / Rob Kidd
The defendant stole mostly meat, perfume, clothes and alcohol.
"He wishes he had more willpower and wisdom to say no to those people to start with," Thorburn said.
The only viable option was to sentence Devereux to imprisonment, she said.
While behind bars, he was committed to undertaking counselling to "rewire this way of thinking", Thorburn said.
Judge Bouchier jailed Devereux for a year on 13 charges of shoplifting and one of trespass.
