Vehicle windows were broken to gain access
Two incidents of theft from vehicles were related in Summary Court on Monday when Paul Michael Miller, 21, was sentenced for related offences.
Crown Counsel Laura Manson said the first incident occurred on Sunday, 1 May, 2011, when a woman parked her car at Trinity Square in George Town and left to watch football. When she returned, she saw a window in the car was broken and her handbag was in a different position.
A further check revealed that her Blackberry phone had been stolen. She notified police, who attended the scene and dusted the car for fingerprints.
The prints were found to match Miller’s. He admitted the theft but denied damaging the vehicle. He told police where he had put the phone and it was returned to the owner.
The second incident occurred on Thursday, 26 May; another woman parked her vehicle in the lot at First Assembly Church of God around 7.30pm. When she returned, she found her car’s rear window broken and her purse missing. It had contained her driver’s licence, an ATM card and other items with a total value of over $385. She reported it to police.
Around 9.15pm the same date, CCTV at Cayman National Bank on Elgin Avenue captured images of Miller placing a card in the Automatic Teller Machine. A computer printout obtained the next day showed that the card had been inserted three times, but not with the correct Personal Identification Number. No money was obtained.
Police spoke with Miller, who denied breaking into the car or stealing the purse. He said he had found the card on Schoolhouse Road and was trying to return it at the bank.
Magistrate Valdis Foldats asked if Miller now accepted that he was trying to get money. Attorney Prathna Bodden said yes, but he still denied taking the card from the vehicle. She called it a very unsophisticated attempted theft because he didn’t know the PIN number.
Ms Bodden pointed out that he was 20 at the time of these offences. He has since learned his lesson and was very remorseful, she added.
The magistrate noted that Miller had been before the court for some time because of underlying problems. There had been efforts to get him into counselling, but he had not taken advantage of the opportunities.
The magistrate referred to file notes. The probation officer trying to work with him last year reported that he had attended three of 17 scheduled sessions. She described him as “somewhat oblivious to the gravity of [his] predicament.”
The court was advised that Miller had been sentenced last summer to two and a half years imprisonment for burglaries. In Grand Court recently, he received a six-month sentence for handling a stolen cell phone and that sentence was made to run concurrently.
The magistrate said he could give Miller credit for his guilty pleas and for assisting police in recovering the Blackberry. For the theft of the phone and the attempted theft with the bank card, Miller received a three month term for each, but the sentences were made to run concurrent with the term he is currently serving.
“I hope they have educational programmes at Northward [Prison],” the magistrate told him. “That’s what you should be using your time for.”
The damage to property charges were left on file.
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