Seasoned criminal betrayed trust of Nottinghamshire pub landlady by stealing her takings

A heavily-convicted criminal betrayed the trust of a Nottinghamshire pub landlady who had helped him to steal £3,000 from her. Nottingham Crown Court heard how at the time Lee Goodwin carried out the “mean” offence against the woman he was on bail for threatening a couple with a machete at a caravan park in Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire.

And in 2019, the 45-year-old amputee, of Bingham, was handed a six-month sentence for what a judge called “a classic road rage” incident when he also waved a machete around. Jailing him for 19 months, Judge Steven Coupland said: “In 2020, you got involved in a confrontation with other people who lived in the same caravan park as you did in Lincolnshire. You threatened to go away and get a machete and you did get the machete and started waving it around and threatening them as you had before in 2019.

“Thankfully, the people on the other side were able to get that from you, but you created a risk of serious injury. One of them says witnessing this devastated her and left her suffering nightmares and she had to have cameras installed.

“While you were on bail for that you stole from someone who had shown you kindness, giving you a place to stay. You went to her car and took a bag which contained £3,000 which was from the pub she was running.

“That was an opportunistic but mean offence and you disputed it (the money) was hers and tried to hang on to it. That was a serious betrayal of trust.”

An earlier hearing at the same court heard how the Lincolnshire offence took place in Ingoldmells, near Skegness, on August 22, 2020. On that occasion, the prosecution said Goodwin, then of Anchor Lane, Ingoldmells and now of Kielder Drive, got into an argument with a couple having been to the pub.

During it, the defendant said he was going to get a machete and returned with the weapon but was punched to the face and disarmed. Then, in May 2022, when he was living in Cottage Avenue, Whatton, he befriended the landlady of the Cranmer Arms in neighbouring Aslockton, who had allowed him to stay over.

By this time, he had a prosthetic limb, having had part of his left leg amputated. On May 25, he went to the victim's car and took the £3,000. Goodwin, who has 38 previous court appearances for 125 offences, pleaded guilty to affray and theft.

This week’s hearing had to be held at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court as the defendant is now wheelchair-bound and access is easier for him there rather than at Nottingham Crown Court.

Luc Chignell, mitigating, said his client’s health issues will mean that time spent behind bars will be harsher on him than an able-bodied prisoner. He said: “He wants to move on from the current area where he lives and relocate to a more remote part of the country with his new partner.”