London riots: Lidl water thief jailed for six months

Linky.

WTF? A supposedly ‘decent’ law-abiding 23yr old jailed for stealing a £3.50 bottle of water? What kind of precedent is that setting given the amount of **** that get nothing for mugging/robbery/burglary etc?

Surely nicking a 42″ plasma is gonna get you a life sentence 🙂

got caught in the moment

And he nicked a case of water.! What a prize plonker.

good bet he won’t be doing that again ha ha ha

Goin’ Daaaahn! 😀

(I wonder if his mate with the camera stole some peas?)

I have a feeling that the vast majority of the people picked up by the police over the last few days will he guys like this. The proper nasty folk will have had the smarts to stay out of reach of the fuzz, the guys in the cells will be all dumb fuds like this guy.

£112.32 to keep someone in prison for a day (info from here: CLICKITY CLICK)

That’s £20,500 for a 6 month sentence based on average.

Fuxsake!?

What a waste of time, money and resources.

That is not justice.

The courts almost always get it wrong, don’t they? That judge should be put away himself I reckon. 😉

To all those who’d disagree – never done anything a bit daft or against the law but not got caught? Now, what would you feel like if you got 6 months for your part in a bit of stupidity?

It will be reduced on appeal – its a magistrate wanting to make headlines.

Yep, I’m with you there mac. Plenty of idiots who got caught in the moment but will ‘fess up = easy pickings for police who want statistics to back up their zero tolerance approach.

That’s £20,500 for a 6 month sentence based on average.

How much will the damage cost to repair?
This is just a demonstration of muscle to prevent future riots. If the majority of rioters went along for the fun and adrenaline, I think that they’ll think long and hard before they go out for a laugh next time.

What a waste of time, money and resources.

That’s our justice system in a nutshell. Has been for years, ever since all this PC/human rights bollocks kicked off.

His conviction is for burglary rather than theft, a far more serious offence in the eyes of the law.

Not saying it’s the right sentence or not, but that’s the offence that it’s for.

I hope you are right Tandem, mate. Aren’t judges sat where they are because they’ve been selected as a fair person worthy of their job? Where’s the fairness in hard sentences for stupidity just to make an impression, eh?

so how many of you complaining about “excessive” sentences & easy suspects were ready to throw the book at them the other night?

be grateful we’re not under martial law

harsh to say the least and not justice.

To all those who’d disagree – never done anything a bit daft or against the law but not got caught? Now, what would you feel like if you got 6 months for your part in a bit of stupidity?

The “not get caught” bit is key though isn’t it. You have to be persistent or stupid to get caught, and if you’re persistent then the time has to be a fair tax for the crime.

Not me John.

Bring back the birch that’s what I say.

haha funny…

The likelihood is that it’ll be reduced on appeal. In the meantime, I guess it has the immediate advantage of ending out a message to any other potential miscreants though. Probably not a bad idea at the moment.

maccruiskeen – Member

I have a feeling that the vast majority of the people picked up by the police over the last few days will he guys like this. The proper nasty folk will have had the smarts to stay out of reach of the fuzz, the guys in the cells will be all dumb fuds like this guy.

Spot on mate. I have no doubt that the ones who did the smashing of the windows etc, were long gone by the time the old bill arrived. The ones that were caught where the idiots who strolled in later picking up worthless and pointless items. I thought that yesterday when I started hearing details of the individual cases.

I’m not so sure the sentence is excessive. Its not the personal gain of some bottled water that he’s being punished for its his part in the greater riot. He’s part of all of the riot, he just happened to make very little material gain. Still an idiot and I’m sure he’s very surprised.

maccruiskeen – Member
I’m not so sure the sentence is excessive. Its not the personal gain of some bottled water that he’s being punished for its his part in the greater riot. He’s part of all of the riot, he just happened to make very little material gain.

Aye – but it sounds as though he was passing through the area once much of the furore had died down. Pretty stupid of him to do it – even more so without checking there were no policemen around.

harsh to say the least

Why?

Maximum sentence for Non Dwelling Burglary is Ten years.

Doesn’t matter if it was a bottle of water or a camcorder – the crime was burglary, it is a serious crime, with huge aggravating factors given the circumstances – He’s bloody lucky it was not sent up to the crown court for a longer sentence!

@maccruiskeen: The point with this one is the guy was not persistent, he didn’t have a criminal record at all. Does this mean he’s stupid then? Is it ok to lock stupid people up?

Have you been in prison? I have – they are full of idiots

He’s part of all of the riot

he walked into an shop that was opened by others and took a bottle of water…that is not rioting as far as I can tell.
If he had done it whilst the shop was open he would have got less.

Never been to prison – I’m not the best one to comment I suppose?

If he had done it whilst the shop was open he would have got less.

See – he’s an idiot 🙂

Nail ’em up I say.

There are lots of things in life that aren’t “fair”

But at the moment, the courts need to scare the $hit out of all the hangers on who were out on the streets egging on the hardcore and getting in the way, so next time they don’t think it is some sort of carnival and the police can get on with their jobs.

If it costs £20,000 to get the message across then that is cheap.

maybe the guy can spend the 6 months thinking about how to do something +ve with the rest of his life, in which case it might not be a total waste of his time.

he walked into an shop that was opened by others and took a bottle of water.

Well, he would say that wouldn’t he?

Yes, riots in the streets, violence all around, half two in the morning 🙄

he’s lucky-if I were in charge he’d have been shot.

Yes, riots in the streets, violence all around, half two in the morning

and a perishing thirst

Well, all that rioting would make you thirsty 😉

its the lack of ambition which I find depressing. Looting from a Lidl is just pathetic.

what is it, 6months which usually means serving half, i.e. 3months.

As for being there, unless he actually lived in the immediate vicinity why was he there? sightseeing?

But yes it is a statement of intent by the authorities, they have to be seen to act in this way.

Prison sentence for this is just insane. What will it achieve? Nothing at all. This is beyond f***ed. It’ll get reduced under appeal, hopefully to a non-custodial, in the meantime more resources get wasted on that appeal process. There’s no winners.

don simon – Member

How much will the damage cost to repair?

Well, nothing at all- he didn’t cause any damage. Or at least, no evidence was presented to suggest he did, he hasn’t admitted to causing any damage, and he’s not been charged with causing any damage.

Did I hear right that in the case of riots its the police that pick up the bill for repairs to property?

Nice white college student with no criminal record gets 6 months and we’re all shocked.

I do wonder if we’d be a bit less dismayed if he had been a young black kid with no criminal record instead.

EDIT: STW? Institutionally racist?