Theft of deodorant leads to jail

Two offences of handling stolen goods followed by a shoplifting charge resulted in a sentence of nine months in prison for Jordan Christopher Khouri last week. 

Khouri, 25, pleaded guilty to all three charges. His underlying problem was drugs, defence attorney John Furniss told Magistrate Nova Hall. 

Crown Counsel Nicole Petit told the court that, on 10 August, 2011, Khouri approached a man and offered to sell him two surfboards. He had one with him at the time. By coincidence, the man recognised the board as one that belonged to him. He called his wife and asked her to check on his two boards. She confirmed they were not where he stored them. 

Police were notified while the man engaged Khouri in conversation. When officers arrived, he said he had purchased the surfboards on the beach the day before. The actual owner said the boards could have been missing from his home for two or three days. On that basis, the Crown accepted a plea to handling instead of theft. 

On 1 December, the owner of a Specialised Roubaix racing bike, reported to police it had been stolen from his garage. An officer on patrol noticed Khouri riding a bike fitting the description of the stolen bike. The officer approached Khouri, who told him that someone had given him the bike. 

On 13 December, a security guard at Hurley’s Supermarket saw Khouri putting items into his pants pocket, then paying for a can of soda and leaving the store. The guard told a uniformed police officer, who was in the store at the time.  

The officer pursued Khouri around to the back of the store, held onto him and asked what he had taken. Khouri produced the items from his pocket – eight cans of deodorant with a total value of $40.13. Khouri asked if he would be given a chance if the gave the items back. 

He then shook himself away from the officer, causing the other man to fall and injure his arm. Khouri ran off but was recaptured a short time later. 

Mr. Furniss said Khouri’s drug use was reflected in his conviction record. He wanted to re-apply to the Drug Rehab Court, but he had been expelled with prejudice already.  

“Of course, he would be free to approach the various agencies for assistance with his problem,” the attorney said. “He has to accept that he needs help and he has to accept the way that help is designed to go rather than his opinion of how that help needs to go.” 

The magistrate said community-based sentence options had been exhausted. 

If it were only the August offence, involving the surfboards, the magistrate said she might have imposed a suspended sentence. But while he was on bail for that, he committed further offences. Now his track record did not allow the court to assist him. 

Taking a totality approach, she imposed six months for each of the handling offences and made them run concurrently. 

For the Hurley’s incident, she imposed six months for resisting arrest and nine months for theft. All terms are to be served concurrently, with credit for time in custody. A charge of escaping lawful custody was left on file.