A 30-year-old Liverpool man has been given a suspended jail sentence after he admitted a nine-month spree of drive-offs from forecourts.

According to website icseftonandwestlancs.co.uk, John Mason was sentenced to a total of six months in jail, suspended for one year. Magistrates ordered him to carry out 240 hours of unpaid community work. He also has to pay £967.39 in court costs and compensation.

The first forecourt he stole from was the BP on East Lancashire Road, Liverpool in October 2010 when he took £88.89-worth of fuel without paying for it. Then, on January 30 last year, he took £98.38-worth of petrol from a site on Southport Road, Formby. Mason returned to steal from the Formby garage again last June and July. These were the only drive-offs he was convicted for but Mason also took fuel without paying for it from two more sites.