A wheelchair-bound father who escaped jail for committing burglaries has now been locked up for breaching three suspended sentences.

Zach Adams sat in the dock in his wheelchair as a judge told him: “You must understand a suspended sentence means what it says. I am sure you appreciate now there is only one way I can deal with you.”

The 23-year-old, formerly of Tramways, Chatham, was given 18 months suspended for two years in August 2013 after a judge heard he had provided police with information about another offender.

He was said to have spinal injuries, kidney failure and psychotic symptoms and was due to undergo a medical investigation for stomach cancer.

Adams, now of Tonbridge Road, Maidstone, admitted burgling a lock-up garage in St John Street, Rochester, and Linda Matthews & Co estate agents in Medway.

The offences were committed with others. Adams was identified because of his crutches.
Maidstone Crown Court heard on Wednesday that he also breached suspended sentences imposed in February and September last year.

Prosecutor Alexia Zimbler said there were two offences of drink-driving, assaulting police officers and threatening to commit criminal damage.

Adams became volatile and aggressive after a suicide attempt when police officers took him to hospital.

He threatened to “batter” one officer and warned: “I will follow him out of the station and burn his house down. It’s not a threat, it’s a promise.”

Elizabeth Wilson, defending, said: “It is a complex picture, perhaps reflecting the chaos of his life. He is wheelchair bound. He has a spinal issue. He has many medical issues.”

Judge Philip Statman told Adams he was looking at about 20 months just in relation to the suspended sentences.

But jailing him for 12 months, he added: “I have done my level best bearing in mind your personal difficulties, your being restricted to a wheelchair, to keep the inevitable prison sentence to a minimum.

“Now, it is down to you. If you come back before me I won’t be able to show the same mercy.”

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