A Benefits Street layabout who was filmed brazenly shoplifting on camera is back behind bars for stealing – just DAYS after being released from prison.
Danny Smith, 31, was accused of giving “lessons in shoplifting” after he featured in the Channel 4 show explaining how to dodge security alarms and remove tags from clothing.
The career criminal was shown pinching from shops around Birmingham city centre camera with pal ‘Fungi’ – sparking over 200 complaints to Ofcom after the show’s explosive first episode on January 6.
During the programme, in which he bragged he had 80 previous convictions for over 200 offences, Danny was seen fleeing James Turner Street after a neighbours cannabis plants were stolen.
Speaking from behind bars last month he accused programme makers of putting his life at risk after he was inundated with death threats after the show aired.
And last Friday he was back in jail again after he was sentenced to 14 weeks imprisonment for stealing a bottle of wine from a supermarket.
The dad-of-three was caught pinching from Morrisons in Edgbaston, Birmingham on February 22.
He admitted one count of theft at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court.
Shockingly, the court heard he had just been released days earlier from his five-month prison sentence imposed for theft and breaching an ASBO.
Yesterday (Mon) witnesses who saw Smith in the back of a police car on the day of his arrest said shoppers immediately recognised Danny from the series, which finished on February 17.
One dad-of-two said: “As we pulled into the car park we saw shop workers running out of the store after someone.
“Two baskets of wine were outside the door.
“We were told by someone at the checkout that it was Danny from Benefits Street.
“We watched the show so we knew who he was.”
Another witness, who did not want to be named, added: “I was shopping when I saw the commotion outside Morrisons.
“I recognised Danny, most people would as everyone round here has watched Benefits Street.
“Jail is probably the best place for him, he clearly can’t stick to rules and regulations of modern life, everyone could see that on the programme.
“Maybe he needs to put a hard days work in, he might be able to afford a bottle of wine if he did that, instead of scrounging off the Government and stealing.
“It’s disgraceful, he will come out and do the same again, it is just a cycle and he won’t learn from his mistakes.”