Self-employed Owen Thomas, 42, was alerted by neighbours who saw a man making off with £150 of copper piping from a shed at his home in Alstone Avenue.Hurrah!
The intruder, a 29-year-old from the town, came back for more. A neighbour noted his car registration details and police went to his house, found the piping and arrested him.
But now comes the terrible story of how he was given a pat on the head and a fiver out of the poor box and sent on his way by some ivory-tower-dwelling soft liberal wuss, I guess?
Well, no. But only because the police decided to just cut out the middleman:
But Mr Thomas was later annoyed to hear the thief had been released with nothing more than a caution.Whoops!
Officers later said the man had been cautioned as it was his first offence.Actually, it was two offences, as the aggrieved owner points out:
Mr Thomas said: "Apparently it gets logged by the police under one offence. But he came back twice so in my book that is two offences. Metal thefts are a big problem at the moment, but there is not much to deter people from doing it if they know they will just get let off."Well, indeed! And if they don’t even get as far as the magistrates in the first place….
Last month police said there had been a spate of metal thefts in the town and pledged to work with scrap dealers to reduce the number of incidents.Those ‘individual circumstances’ seemingly being ‘We just can’t be arsed’…
But police said the individual circumstances of the case meant a caution was the most appropriate course of action.
Spokeswoman Alexa Collicott said: "The offender made a full admission of the offence at the earliest possible opportunity. He had no previous convictions for theft and was on this occasion eligible for a formal caution. The stolen items were recovered and arrangements have been made to return them to the victim."
His latest one on pensions is interesting. I can understand his feelings, but the real problem is that schemes that are supposed to be funded are now way way short. Schemes that are meant to be self financing are even shorter. The result is a real mess all round.
ReplyDelete"He had no previous convictions for theft and was on this occasion eligible for a formal caution."
ReplyDeleteDoes he not STILL have no previous convictions, or does a caution count as a conviction?
If double standards ever troubled Gadget, it was never evident on her public forum blog where treason, hypocrisy, begging and gratuitous obscenities, are de rigueur.
ReplyDeleteDo you think we want to caution criminals like this? The govt decides the parameters and this clearly fell into cautioning territory.
ReplyDeleteJust for the record,I don't agree this course of action.
I have charged criminals where they haven't admitted the offence,gone to court and seen the strength of the case,pleaded guilty and the CPS have sent them back to me to caution.I get very grumpy about this as they are meant to admit their guilt at an early stage to get a caution.
Jaded
Anon, your obv in the business.
ReplyDeleteI was going to post, that rather than blame the police, blame the system, as you say the government calls the shots and you can only work within those guidelines. Having friends in the force, I know they are heartily sick of the whole system.
I suppose we could blame the government, Yve. Those nasty faceless ones directing ordinarily nice folk to act abominably.
ReplyDeleteYou know, like trip up the innocent/defenceless from behind and then pervert justice with outrageous lie upon outrageous lie.
Yes Melvin,this is exactly the same as the story of the drunk at the G20.Well done for keeping his memory alive on nearly every blog you comment on.
ReplyDeleteJaded
Hello Yve,I am in the business.For a long time which is why I call myself Jaded.
A bankruptcy arose when the job of constructing an honest edifice for Law and Order, was entrusted to habitual liars in uniform.
ReplyDeleteImagine me giving you a virtual yawn MTG.
ReplyDeleteIf we are liars in uniform,does that mean you believe what the CID say?
Jaded.
"The offender made a full admission of the offence at the earliest possible opportunity...."
ReplyDeleteI would have thought that the "earliest possible opportunity" would be before the police showed up when he had a houseful of stolen property, not after.
Admitting theft after you are caught red-handed is just the least stupid thing to do.
"I can understand his feelings, but the real problem is that schemes that are supposed to be funded are now way way short. "
ReplyDeleteYup, there's a great deal of denial of reality there.
"Does he not STILL have no previous convictions, or does a caution count as a conviction?"
Good point! I expect he's learned his lesson now, though, and will be on the straight and narrow from now on...
Heh! Right!
"Do you think we want to caution criminals like this? The govt decides the parameters and this clearly fell into cautioning territory."
It's the juxtaposition with the current campaign against metal theft, though. It's as if there's no more 'joined up thinking' in the police as in any of the other services...
"Admitting theft after you are caught red-handed is just the least stupid thing to do."
Quite!
"no previous convictions for theft"
ReplyDeleteWhat were they for then?
"no previous convictions for theft"
ReplyDeleteWhat were they for then?
Good point. Missed that.