A 53-year-old man who today confessed to apparatus and burglary offences almost a year after being charged, has been slapped with a 15-month prison sentence.
And while Peter Samuel James actually only has to serve three more months on that sentence, since he has already spent 12 months on remand, he will still end up in prison longer as he was also punished for breaching a bond.
The unemployed man, who is recorded as having no fixed place of abode, told Magistrate Douglas Frederick in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court today that he was the one who broke a window at the Esso Service Station in Holborn Circle sometime between September 28 and 29 last year.
He was caught on camera entering the building and stealing 183 boxes of cigarettes valued at $1,076.20, and 63 cigarette lighters worth $62.10 belonging to Esso Tiger Rock and Investment.
James was later apprehended by police walking along a road carrying a bag with 58 boxes of cigarettes and 22 lighters.
A restitution order has been granted for those items to be returned to the owner.
The cocaine apparatus charge stemmed from a police search of James when he was taken to the police station. A bottle which was cut at the bottom and charred at the top with a substance suspected to be cocaine was found in his possession.
James, who has 60 convictions dating back to the 80s, told Magistrate Frederick that he was “feeling down” as he has been incarcerated for almost a year.
The magistrate imposed the 15-month sentence for his latest crimes but then informed him that his guilty plea had also invoked a three-month prison term on a breached bond to keep the peace.
As such, James will spend six more months at HMP Dodds.