A teenage burglar “just, and only just” escaped being locked up after a house was burgled and the occupant’s car was burnt out.
Scott Fitzgerald broke into a property in Herschel Crescent, Littlemore, and took a handbag containing the keys to a Mazda RX8 sports car, later found burnt out in Blackbird Leys.
Oxford Crown Court Recorder Matthew Lowe said he “hesitated long and hard” before imposing a non-custodial sentence on the 19-year-old, who got to the bag through an unlocked kitchen window.
Why?
Lucy Tapper, defending, said her client, of Alice Smith Square in Littlemore, “was very drunk at the time”.
She added: “He’s much the sort of person who could be talked into, led into, that type of offence, rather than instigating it himself”.
Miss Tapper continued: “He is considered to be conscientious, honest, friendly, personable and helpful, so that these offences are out of character.”
Are they? Or are they just his true character showing through?
He added at Friday’s hearing: “You have come very, very close to going through that door to the cells rather than this one [back into court].”
Well, don’t worry, Recorder Lowe, I suspect he’ll be back soon to keep his appointment with that door…
In my nievity I imagined that stealing a car and burning it out would have carried an immediate custodial sentance regardless.
ReplyDeleteI assume this womans insurance had to pay for the car and she lost her no claims.
The UK is pretty lax about car crime; TWOCing is rife but largely treated as borrowing your partner's pen and forgetting to hand it back.
ReplyDeleteMind you, it saves the cops and courts from having to deal with it. Even setting the stolen car on fire to destroy any evidence isn't the mark of a bad person.
But though this person has been identified as "conscientious, honest, friendly, personable and helpful" I tend to think those apply to people who don't damage, steal and burn (and presumably lie rather than coming clean). Oh well, how wrong I am...
"I suspect he’ll be back soon to keep his appointment with that door… "
ReplyDeleteOr, much more likely, to be let off yet again.
XX Lucy Tapper, defending, said her client, of Alice Smith Square in Littlemore, “was very drunk at the time”.XX
ReplyDeleteWhy was the bastard not done for drunk drive as well then?
It could have been worse... he might have been middle-aged, married, working but with no TV licence. Then he'd definitely be looking at a stretch inside!
ReplyDelete@ JP ..
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely ..
Or, perish the thought .. put the wrong type of rubbish in the wrong type of bin ..
Automatic grounds for a ten-stretch that !
Why was the bastard not done for drunk drive as well then?
ReplyDeleteProbably because he was not caught at the time.
What is certain is that he will come again
O.K. Then you have drunk in charge.
ReplyDelete"I assume this womans insurance had to pay for the car and she lost her no claims."
ReplyDeleteBet on it... :(
"The UK is pretty lax about car crime; TWOCing is rife but largely treated as borrowing your partner's pen and forgetting to hand it back."
Yes, it's curious, isn't it, given the monetary value of a vehicle?
"It could have been worse... he might have been middle-aged, married, working but with no TV licence."
Indeed!
"What is certain is that he will come again"
As certain as death and taxes...