Thursday 23 June 2011

My Son? No, Never, Not My Boy…

A boy aged 15 who crashed a stolen car through the front of a house causing up to £100,000 damage has been locked up.
I should think so! I doubt, however, it was a single offence.

And of course, it wasn’t:
The teen, who cannot be named because he is under 18, was sentenced to a 14-month detention order.

Yesterday, Harwich Youth Court heard the boy had also admitted making malicious phone calls to a girl, stealing an iPod from a shop, threatening a police officer and trying to steal computers from a school in Colchester. The offences were committed in the past year.
Clearly, Dad didn’t think the solicitor was up to the task of making up the usual excuses:
The boy’s dad made an emotional appeal for a lenient sentence.

He said: “We’re horrified listening to this list of things. It goes against what I recognise. When he’s with me, he comes to work and I hear nothing but good things.

“I don’t want his life ruined. He doesn’t realise what he’s done and needs to break the cycle.”
He doesn’t realise it’s not a good idea to burgle a house, steal a high-performance car and crash it into another house?

Well, maybe 14 months (yeah, like he’ll serve it all) will bring that home…

Not to be outdone by pater, his solicitor chipped in:
Roger Brice, mitigating, said: “Before last year, he had never been in court in his life. I know things have happened of a personal nature and that’s coincided with what’s happened here.
Hmmm, ‘troubled family life’ defence?

And can we know who he is?
The Gazette’s application to the court to name the boy was refused.
So, the next time some little s**t steals your car keys or crashes a stolen car into your house, just ask him if it all looks a bit familiar.

You probably won’t have to wait 14 months, either…

7 comments:

James Higham said...

"It goes against what I recognize."

OMG. You may or may not recall, Julia, that I was a Prep School head. Can you imagine the number of times I heard that?

Pavlov's Cat said...

needs to break the cycle

I don't think adding Criminal Damage is the way to go

and another thing

“Before last year, he had never been in court in his life. I know things have happened of a personal nature and that’s coincided with what’s happened here.”

He's 15 FFS, I would expect him to have never been in court in his life. Or am I just getting old.

Lord T said...

'he comes to work'

He is 15. Shouldn't he be in school instead.

blueknight said...

Before last year, he had never been in court in his life.
He would have done but for the fact that the offences kept on piling up and the old offences were waiting to be heard with the new ones.
I knew a juvenile who had committed 14 offences but CPS saved them all up for one court appearance.

Cell by date said...

Not someone who the father recognises?

I think perhaps the little oik is smart enough not to do bad things in front of his dear old dad.

Perhaps too pater only hears good things about his son because people are terrified to tell the truth about the brat in case he turns on them.

Laban said...

I agree with the Cat that he shouldn't start on people's bikes - its bad enough that he needs to break the car.

JuliaM said...

"You may or may not recall, Julia, that I was a Prep School head. Can you imagine the number of times I heard that?"

Yup, plenty, I'll bet!

"He's 15 FFS, I would expect him to have never been in court in his life. Or am I just getting old."

A question I often find myself pondering...

"He is 15. Shouldn't he be in school instead."

Perhaps we'll be charitable and assume he was talking about a Saturday job?

"I think perhaps the little oik is smart enough not to do bad things in front of his dear old dad. "

Or smart enough not to get caught at all...

"I agree with the Cat that he shouldn't start on people's bikes - its bad enough that he needs to break the car."

:D