Man jailed after dodging £7.40 taxi fareA man who ran off without paying a £7.40 taxi fare has been jailed.
Michael Ledwith, of Burnaston Road, Aylestone, Leicester, committed the offence on June 22, 2013, and was charged and admitted the crime.
At an earlier hearing he was given a 12-month community sentence with 49 hours of unpaid work.
But he was recalled to court having only completed less than three of the hours.
Leicester Crown Court heard on Friday that Ledwith worked installing solar panels and that he failed to show up for his unpaid work sessions because he had been needed for jobs.
Judge Philip Head told Ledwith that he now had no choice other than to jail him.
He said: "Mr Ledwith, I made a bargain with you and you made a decision to prioritise work over the court's sentence.
"The court has run out of options."
He gave Ledwith a two-week custodial sentence, half of which he will spend in prison and half on licence.
Judge Head said: "You will serve half of that and then be released and I hope that if you can take that as holiday your job will remain yours.
"If you carry on committing offences the court is not going to be very sympathetic to you."
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