A TEENAGE vandal who went on a £10,000 town centre wrecking spree armed with a hammer has been jailed.
Reagen Coppin toured town centre shops in the early hours of the morning repeatedly striking windows and glass doors with a hammer.
The 19-year-old was caught on CCTV smashing the shops in November last year while wearing a camouflage outfit.
He went around shops in the Lion Walk Shopping Centre including Boots, New Look, River Island and Timpson.
Police were notified when a member of the public saw someone smashing the window of Argos in Long Wyre Street.
Coppin returned to the YMCA where he was staying at the time and asked to speak to a staff member who noticed he had blood all over his hands and glass lodged in his knuckles.
He suggested police would be coming for him. Coppin, now of Clements Close, Chelmsford, admitted five counts of criminal damage at Colchester Magistrates’ Court.
The court heard he suffered unexplained blackouts but had watched the CCTV and accepted it was probably him.
Roger Neild, mitigating, said: “He has quite a complex set of personal circumstances and has been diagnosed with unstable personality disorder and has also heard voices in the past.
“He had just turned 18 at the time and was was immature in life and experience.
“He has dyslexia and was living at the YMCA because there was very little support for him.
“Alarm bells ring when you hear the hear the words blackouts.
“We are dealing with a vulnerable young person.”
Coppin told probation officers he had no recollection of going to town that night and no idea how he got the hammer.
Magistrates handed him 20 weeks in jail for the damage - four weeks for each store to run consecutively.
Coppin is already the subject of a community order for handling a stolen bicycle and the bench decided to revoke that order due to his poor compliance.
He will now serve four weeks in jail for that - meaning a total of 24 weeks in prison.
Due to the custodial sentence, no compensation was awarded to the businesses who shelled out for repairs.
Coppin will pay a £115 victim surcharge upon release.
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