Tuesday 29 November 2011

Third Time’s The Charm!

Linda Boyd, 31, was found struggling to carry home £500 of booze and cigarettes in a bin liner when she was stopped by police during the August disturbances.

She was hauled before Judge Andrew Gilbart QC, but Manchester’s top judge did not jail her because he accepted she was already in the city centre and had become swept up in the rioting. Boyd was given a 10-month suspended sentence at Manchester Crown Court on August 16 and warned she would be sent to prison if she fell foul of the law in the next two years.
Yeah. You can guess what happened next.
But just days later Boyd was again caught shoplifting more than £1,000 of clothing from a Marks & Spencer store in Altrincham.
And, proving that it’s not just her that isn’t learning a thing from this…
Boyd, of Cutland Street, Newton Heath, was spared prison for a second time when she appeared at Minshull Street Crown Court in September, this time receiving a 10-week suspended sentence.
*sigh*
Now she is finally behind bars after failing to attend her probation appointments.
Shocker, I think you’ll agree…
Boyd was told she would have to serve the original 10-month and 10-week sentences, to run concurrently.
Why not consecutively?

And the reason for the leniency isn’t because she had a spotless record, either:
The court heard she had a long history of shoplifting including stealing from the Arndale Centre, the Co-op and JD Sports.
But we know the justice system doesn’t see shoplifting as real stealing, don’t we?

10 comments:

A K Haart said...

All I want to know is - who nicked our justice?

swanseajock said...

Why are we continually surprised at the pathetic courts? And concurrent seems to be the only form of serving sentences. Pathetic

staybryte said...

swanseajock

True enough. I cannot recall any occasion, ever, when I have heard of sentences having to run consecutively. Can anyone else?

Lord T said...

Looks like the pressure for photo ops is off now then. I bet the guy jailed for months for that bottle of water wishes he had managed to delay his sentencing a bit.

British justice.

Anonymous said...

All I can think of is the police officers who had to waste their time (hours and hours) yet again filling out a mountain of MG files and having to liaise with the inept CPS rep in the first instance YET AGAIN to get such a pointless result.....AGAIN. Madness! Cost alone should determine that chummy gets weighed off large!

Penny Pincher said...

But what is the point of putting her in prison? She'd only go and nick the jail.

Captain Haddock said...

I'm hardly surprised she was struggling to carry it all in a black plastic bag ..

Most of 'em are as thin as politicians promises, once they get elected ..

Greencoat said...

In my dreams I see these parasites semi-naked, breaking rocks in the rain.

Guess I'm just a hopeless romantic.

Anonymous said...

If you go to our magistrates' courts you will soon discover they aren't about justice. We actually do more or less nothing about this level of crime or its social causes.

JuliaM said...

"And concurrent seems to be the only form of serving sentences. "

Yup, like staybryte, I've yet to see anything else imposed...

"In my dreams I see these parasites semi-naked, breaking rocks in the rain."

There's a picture of her at the newspaper. You might want to reconsider...

"We actually do more or less nothing about this level of crime or its social causes."

True enough.