Take a look at what has been happening in Norwich courts this week.

Ben Steward

Ben Steward, 34, of Godric place already had 47 convictions for 82 offences to his name when he appeared at Norwich Magistrates Court earlier this week.

Two-thirds of those offences were for theft, and he admitted another nine offences of shoplifting carried out between the summer of 2018 and January of this year.

Tess Mann, prosecuting, outlined each offence to the court, including the theft of £32 worth of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

Magistrates refused to order a drug rehabilitation programme for Steward after hearing from probation he has not engaged with support services in the past.

Steward, of Godric Place, was jailed for 15 weeks for each offence, to run concurrently, and a victim surcharge of £115.

Steven Hill

Self-described alcoholic Steven Hill, 40, appeared at Norwich Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, where he pleaded guilty to fraud offences committed earlier this week.

The court heard Hill, of Alfred Road, Cromer, was rummaging through bins in Cromer in the early hours of Monday, January 14, when he found a handbag containing three bank cards, a charger and headphones.

CCTV footage showed he walked into a Morrisons supermarket at around 6am and bought tobacco, eight cans of beer and a bottle of rum with two of the credit cards.

Prosecutor Jane Walker said the owner of the handbag realised her bag was missing on January 14 and checked online to find the transactions were made on her card at 6.12am.

Hill pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation, dishonestly handling stolen goods and theft and was sentenced to eight weeks in prison.

Anastasios Sotiropoulos and Dionysios Tsekleris

Thomas Sotiropoulos, 58, used fake identities to make online applications over a five-year period - with his victims including Santander, Virgin Money and MBNA.

Sotiropoulos admitted fraud charges between 2013 and August last year amounting to more than £1m.

Martin Ivory, prosecuting, said Sotiropoulos used online applications to obtain fraudulent loans and credit using fake identities and documents.

This week Judge Katharine Moore jailed Sotiropoulos for four years nine months and described it as a 'cynical' course of dishonesty.

His co-defendant Dionysios Tsekleris, 42, admitted laundering some of the cash and was jailed for 15 months.

David Nelson

David Nelson, 51, of no fixed address, was convicted of one charge of rape and sex assaults on one girl and sex assaults on a second victim, following a trial at Norwich Crown Court this week.

The sex assaults date back 20 years for one victim and eight years for the second victim.

Nelson had denied all the charges.

Duncan O'Donnell, prosecuting, said that in one case the sex assaults started on one victim when she was just seven and said that both the victims in the case were 'vulnerable.'

Sentencing Nelson, Judge Maureen Bacon said he had abused the girls for his own sexual needs and that he posed a high risk to children.

She imposed a 28 year extended sentence which is made up of 20 years custody and with an eight-year extended licence.

Nelson was also placed on the sex offenders register for life and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order.