Thursday 28 July 2011

Laughing At The Law...

...and getting away with it:
A judge agreed to shorten a thief's night–time curfew after hearing that his dog could last only eight hours without answering the call of nature.
Wha..?
The probation service proposed that he should be subjected to a 9pm to 7am curfew at his home in Tuffley, Glos.

But Ian Fenny, defending, pointed out that
Hutton had a dog and lived alone. "As dog owners he and I have been discussing the difficulties of a curfew order," said Mr Fenny.
How cozy...
The judge admitted that he had owned dogs in the past and asked: "What times does his dog like to go out at night?"
OK, I'm struggling here. Does he have no garden wherein to let Fang do his nightly ablutions?

And what did he steal?
At a hearing in Bristol Crown Court on Jan 21, Hutton had admitted stealing cash from his ex–partner and was sentenced to a 51–week jail term suspended for two years with a condition that he carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.

The case was back before the court yesterday because Hutton's ill–health had prevented him from completing more than six hours of the order.

A probation officer, Patrick Tracey, told the Recorder that as an alternative to unpaid work he was recommending a curfew as punishment.
And just how does a curfew 'repay the community', which is what community orders are meant to do?

And how about, as an alternative to the unpaid work, he does the 51 weeks of chokey instead?
Mr Fenny told the court that Hutton had been living in Cornwall at the time of the offence. He and his partner had decided to pool their resources to buy a £35,000 boat but Hutton backed out of the deal and left her, taking the money with him. His defence was that he thought he had taken only his half of the cash but had been mistaken.
/facepalm
Mr Fenny said Hutton was living in Gloucester because he was awaiting two operations on his ears to try to improve severe hearing difficulties. He had been treated by a surgeon in Cornwall, where he was living at the time of the offence, but moved to Gloucestershire because the surgeon was now there.
Oh, really? Not because his antics had finally exhausted the patience of the Cornish courts?

9 comments:

Curmudgeon said...

Isn't it the norm in certain, umm, disadvantaged households for them to be full of dog and cat poo anyway?

Lynne said...

Soooo, he's too ill to do community service but not too ill to walk his dog? And presumably the judge was too thick to realise he was being had?

All at our expense of course.

SBC said...

"Soooo, he's too ill to do community service "

Actually IME PayBack tends to involve heavy physical labour. One of my kids had to do a couple of hundred hours and it was almost 'chain gang'....digging drainage ditches, laying pipe, renovating Youth Centres.

Depends no doubt on the area but around here it seems it isn't a soft option.

Was probably the hardest he'll ever work in his life.

English Viking said...

Curmudgeon,

What's brown, stinks of poo and is attached to a satellite dish?








A council house!

SBC said...

"A council house!"

SNORK!!

Anonymous said...

Curmudgeon: I worked with a young lady who was, sadly, Chav material through and through, who bought a hulking dog. She used to hate going home at the end of the working day because of having to clean the piles of dog doo off the kitchen floor.

Still, better than having to train it to crap anywhere else. That takes time when there's something good on telly.

microdave said...

"Could last only eight hours without answering the call of nature"

Lucky bloody dog - I wish I could go that long...

"Isn't it the norm in certain, umm, disadvantaged households for them to be full of dog and cat poo anyway?"

Not round here - they take their dogs for "walkies" to other areas and let them crap on our grass verges...

JuliaM said...

"Isn't it the norm in certain, umm, disadvantaged households for them to be full of dog and cat poo anyway?"

Reading some of the comments on police blogs, it seems so!

"Soooo, he's too ill to do community service but not too ill to walk his dog?"

Precisely!

"Still, better than having to train it to crap anywhere else. That takes time when there's something good on telly."

*speechless*

"Lucky bloody dog - I wish I could go that long..."

:D

Mr Ecks said...

HE should be paying back the money he stole+reparations to the injured party. If he has no money then he needs to be forced, either by being made to do useful work under the cosh or have his benefits reduced. So long as he pays for his crime he can walk the dog when he pleases.

I see nothing useful about either curfews or "community service".