A SERIAL thief who stole charity donation tins while on bail for other offences has been jailed for three years by the Royal Court.

James Christopher Power (41) was found with four empty tins at his home address after they went missing several days earlier from Britannia Bar in St Helier. 

The police found the boxes on 16 January 2026 during a search of the 41-year-old’s address – after he had been previously arrested him for attempting to steal a fridge freezer from a garden shed.

Power appeared in the Royal Court yesterday after admitting three counts of larceny, two counts of possession of a class C drug, attempted breaking and entering with intent and failure to surrender. 

The defendant has 25 previous convictions for a total of 80 offences – 42 of which relate to dishonesty.

The court heard that the convictions include taking charity boxes belonging to Jersey Hospice, Jersey Rescue Dogs and one other charity.

Outlining the breaking and entering offence, Crown Advocate Christina Hall, prosecuting, said Power “gained access” to the victim’s storage shed after entering their garden in the early hours of 15 January 2026. 

He was later noticed by neighbours “pushing a white fridge freezer” and a variety of other household items “down the road in the general direction of his home address”.

Advocate Hall said he then “returned to the same garden and broke a bathroom window with the intention of gaining access to the dwelling”.

The smashing of the glass, she added, woke up the victim’s neighbours who proceeded to alert the police. 

The 41-year-old was later arrested after authorities arrived “to find the defendant attempting to hide in the garden of the address”, Advocate Hall said.

Having been released on police bail, he then proceeded to steal a “tip jar” off the counter of Barkers Newsagents in Victoria Street.

On the same day he failed to appear at the Magistrates Court to be sentenced for two offences of possession of class C drugs. 

During a police search of his address on 16 January 2026, he was found to have in his possession a “plastic bag containing four empty charity donation tins” and loose change to the value of £119.82.

Two days later, on 18 January, the owners of Britannia Bar in St Helier reported four charity tins they believed to have been stolen from the pub. 

“Respectfully, the Crown submits that the defendant has been given multiple opportunities by the Island’s judiciary to turn his life around, and has proven time and time again either he is either unable or unwilling to do so”, Advocate Hall said.

Advocate James Corbett, defending, attributed his client’s most serious offending to an ill-timed trip to London with his partner, during which he failed to renew his prescription for an opiate substitute in Jersey. 

“The effect of having no opiate substitute in that period made for a hard choice and bad decisions”, he explained. 

He described the theft of charity boxes as “mean-minded” and “nasty”, but not necessarily “anything more serious”.

Advocate Corbett noted that his client began using heroin at the age of 14 and spent his “entire 20s blighted by relatively minor offences.”

He asked the court to consider a non-custodial sentence.

“There used to be a saying that drug defendants will always break your heart, it’s largely true too – if you defend.

“But perhaps one can pose this: where is our humanity if we don’t try?”, he concluded.

Delivering the court’s sentence, Deputy Bailiff Mark Temple, presiding, said: “We note that in this case it was also night time, you were on conditional bail and that you had extensive history of previous convictions.

“In your own interest and due to the seriousness of this offending and the repeat offending, and your history of offending, we consider that we have to impose a custodial sentence.” 

Power was sentenced to a total of three years’ imprisonment and the court ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs.