A heartless gambler pawned his girlfriend’s family heirlooms before stealing £100 from her son to feed his “chronic addiction”.

Damon Coulson’s partner began noticing jewellery mysteriously disappearing from their Margate home for seven months.

But suspicions he was a thief would finally be confirmed when £100 disappeared from an envelope belonging to her son.

When the 44-year-old’s actions were reported to police he was questioned and admitted cashing in the precious items at H&T Pawnbrokers in Margate High Street.

A court would hear Coulson made just £1,390 from the transaction which, given the shop’s interest rate, put the £2,286 buyback price far beyond reach.

But he frittered away the money to fund a gambling addiction.

Coulson, of Margate Road, Ramsgate, would admit fraud and theft at Margate Magistrate’s Court in April.

He also admitted to five shoplifting incidents between October last year and March this year, but at the time, sentencing was adjourned to allow probation officers to carry out a pre-sentencing report.

Coulson returned to the same court for sentencing on June 6 to hear his fate when prosecutor Dylan Bradshaw laid down the facts of the case.

Mr Bradshaw explained how Coulson left his partner of 10 months “betrayed and saddened” after stealing the £100 and taking the jewellery between 2022 and July 2023.

“He has a chronic gambling addiction and he stole the jewellery and the cash from her son, but he has now paid that back (to the son),” he added.

“They had been together for 10 months and he lived with her and she noticed some items of jewellery went missing - they were family heirlooms.

“He had gone into the H&T Pawnbrokers and had pawned it and used the money for his gambling addiction.

“She was shocked, disappointed and saddened by his behaviour, she felt betrayed.”

Magistrates were told how, after Coulson’s crimes came to light, he could not afford to get the jewellery back.

But police managed to secure and return the items to their rightful owner.

Mr Bradshaw added: “The pawnbroker released the jewellery to the police on the condition it would get at least £1,390 compensation. They were seeking interest from the defendant too.”

“(His partner) had no contact with (the pawnbrokers) and the goods are hers, (Coulson) had no legal right to pawn the jewellery.”

The prosecutor also told the court on October 10 last year, Coulson stole a Sharp TV from the Asda store in Westwood, Broadstairs, when he covered it in foil and just walked out of the store with the television set.

Mr Bradshaw added: “He put silver foil on the TV and left without paying, again to sell for cash to pay for his gambling addiction.”

The bench also heard he stole alcohol worth £110.50 on January 22 this year, from the Tesco superstore in Ramsgate and the very next day, visited the shop again and stole more alcohol from inside.

Then on February 26, Coulson returned to the Asda store in Broadstairs and took £232 worth of alcohol from inside and on March 25, walked into the Home Bargains store in Ramsgate and stole a variety of items valued at £149.22.

Mr Bradshaw added: “He does have a long record and has been in prison before.”

A probation officer who interviewed Coulson told the court he had 52 convictions for 129 offences and had spent most of his life behind bars.

They said Coulson stated he had a cannabis habit and was still prescribed a heroin substitute despite not taking the drug for years.

The officer told how a community-based sentence would enable Coulson to keep his liberty and enable probation to help get his life on track.

Lainey Snook, mitigating, said her client pleaded guilty to all charges at an early opportunity and deserved full credit.

She added: “He was a heroin addict for eight years and he does have a poor history of convictions. He was jailed for burglary and got 44 months and was then recalled on licence, but was released in July 2022, so he’s had 14 months without any convictions.

“It was 2019 when he last used heroin, he’s not used since and he moved (after getting out of prison) and things were going well.

“He was using the gym, but he had back problems and had to have emergency surgery on his back and was unable to walk.

“He was bedridden, he only had 40% mobility and his mental health declined and he started gambling, in fact, he said to me he didn’t have a heroin addiction, he has an addictive personality.

“He had been doing cocaine too, but he’s not used that for three months and now he goes to weekly meetings (for his addiction) and is permanently signed off work.

“He’s very remorseful (about the fraud) and it was him who wanted to contact the police, she didn’t want to and he made full admissions about the fraud to the police.”

Magistrates told Coulson they were sentencing him for all seven charges with one sentence, which in their opinion, did pass the custody threshold.

However, despite jailing Coulson for 18 weeks, they suspended the term for 18 months.

They also placed Coulson on a six-month drug rehabilitation requirement and ordered him to complete 20 rehabilitation sessions with probation.

Coulson was also ordered to attend a thinking skills programme for 19 days and the bench ordered he pay the pawnbroker £1,390, which he will repay at a rate of £20 a month.