Jersey Unreported Judgments

[2011]JRC136A

Royal Court

(Samedi)

8 July 2011

The Attorney General

-v-

Sean Patrick O'Shea

Sentencing by the Inferior Number of the Royal Court, following a guilty plea to the following charges:

Age:  31.

Plea: Guilty.

Details of Offence:

On the evening 13^th March, 2011, O'Shea was in Chambers Public House.  Whilst in the bar he stole a purse and contents valued at £50 from a handbag that a customer had placed by her chair on the floor.  He was arrested later that evening due to drunken behaviour and was still holding the purse at the time of his arrest (Count 1).  He admitted the theft and was charged in the Magistrate's Court before being released on bail. 

On 31^st March, 2011, O'Shea had been drinking in the bar at the Apollo Hotel.  The manager had been doing the weekly accounts and had left his office momentarily.  Whilst he was gone O'Shea illegally entered the room where he was subsequently disturbed by a member of staff.  O'Shea pushed past the staff member and escaped, having stolen £941 cash (hotel takings) £902 cash (thrift club money) five cheques totalling £600 (thrift club) and approximately £2,500 (hotel manager's personal savings) from the office safe (Count 2). 

O'Shea was arrested the following day trying to board a ferry to the United Kingdom.  At the time of his arrest he was carrying £320 cash.  During interview he described himself as a "bum" and said that his only income was incapacity benefit.  He answered no comment to questions concerning the Apollo Hotel.  He was later identified by two members of staff from the Apollo Hotel during an identity parade.  He was charged in the Magistrate's Court and entered guilty pleas prior to being committed to the Royal Court.  He later explained that he had stolen cash to pay off a drug debt. 

Details of Mitigation:

Guilty pleas, background of substance abuse.

Previous Convictions:

20 previous convictions comprising 104 offences.  35 of these were offences of dishonesty.

Conclusions:

Total:  2 years' imprisonment. 

Sentence and Observations of Court:

These were opportunistic but serious offences of dishonesty.

Conclusions granted. 

C. M. M. Yates, Esq., Crown Advocate.

Advocate J. M. Grace for the Defendant.

JUDGMENT

THE BAILIFF:

1.        You have a poor record, as your Advocate has admitted, including some 35 previous offences of dishonesty and you also have a long standing drug problem which means that you steal to feed the habit, and on this occasion you stole in order to pay off a drug debt that you had incurred and in respect of which you had been attacked.  You stole a purse from a lady's handbag and then, whilst on bail for that, you entered the manager's office in a hotel and stole over £4000 in cash together with some cheques.  Much of that money represented the personal savings of the manager.  You were caught the next day trying to leave the Island.  We do accept that both offences were opportunistic, but nevertheless they were serious offences of dishonesty and the reports assess you at being at high risk of re-offending. 

2.        In mitigation you have pleaded guilty although you were initially not cooperative.  We have read the contents of the reports, we have listened carefully to what your Advocate has said and we have read the letter which you wrote to us when we retired.  Your real problem is that until you address your drug problem you are likely to find yourself re-offending and going back to prison, possibly for longer and longer spells.  We were encouraged to hear that during your time on remand you have taken steps to try and address your drug problem.  We were pleased to hear of the fact that you have benefited from the counsellor there and we do urge you to continue with that work for the remainder of your sentence, because your only hope of turning your life around, which you say you want to, is to overcome your drug problem so that when you come out you can break away from this cycle, find employment and begin a normal life.  So we hope very much that you mean what you say and that you do intend to turn your life around. 

3.        But in the meantime you have to go to prison for these offences.  We have carefully considered everything that your Advocate has said but we feel that the conclusions of the Crown are right and therefore the sentence is 3 months' imprisonment on the first count and 2 years' imprisonment on the second count, concurrent, which makes a total of 2 years. 

Authorities

AG-v-Gaffney [1995] JLR N22b.

AG-v-Gaffney 1995/101.

Whelan on Aspects of Sentencing in the Superior Court of Jersey.