Christmas Squatter Is Jailed For Six Months- Merged Thead

[juvenal]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12088871

Took nothing; cleaned up - but 6 months? At least he's out of the bloody cold!

[Butthead]

If I was homeless in Belfast in December and someone offered me a free bed and free meals for six months (i.e. jail) I'd consider it quite a good deal.

[corevalue]

Is this last year, or what? Had possession of the flat between 24th and 28th and gets sentenced on the 29th? Summat not right.

[juvenal]

Is this last year, or what? Had possession of the flat between 24th and 28th and gets sentenced on the 29th? Summat not right.

Clearly this squatter is such a major villain they fast-tracked him through the system for the safety of the public.

[Number79]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12088871

Took nothing; cleaned up - but 6 months? At least he's out of the bloody cold!

the judge gave him what he wanted. Now he gets 6 months out of the cold and free food

cant please some people

[RufflesTheGuineaPig]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12088871

Scales of justice

A homeless man who squatted in a Belfast apartment over Christmas to escape the freezing weather has been jailed for six months.

Robert Lewandowski, 29, used keys he had stolen weeks earlier to move into the south Belfast flat once a woman who lived there left for the holidays.

The Polish national was said to have taken nothing during a four-day stay.

Belfast Magistrates Court heard the woman who lived in the flat and the police were sympathetic to his plight.

He used a stove, watched television and cleaned up after himself.

Lewandowski pleaded guilty to theft and wrongfully taking possession of the property at Tates Avenue between December 24 and 28.

Belfast Magistrates' Court heard on Wednesday that he had been sleeping in apartment block communal areas after losing his home and job earlier this year.

'Stole keys'

He stole the keys after spotting the door to the flat lying open and went in after a party on 5 December.

A lawyer for Lewandowski, of no fixed address, said he had left the property exactly as he found it.

He told the court that when the woman and her partner returned to find him there the defendant did not try to leave.

The solicitor said his client was apologetic, but had only gone in on Christmas Eve when temperatures were down to -10C.

"He let himself in to keep out of the cold. For four days he used the TV and stove to heat some food," he said.

"He didn't take anything, and he had four days and ample opportunity to effectively clean the place out," the solicitor added.

But after Lewandowski waived his right to a pre-sentence report, the district judge said his theft and wrongful entry was without justification.

He was jailed for two terms of six months each to run concurrently.

He also agreed to fix bail pending a planned appeal, although Lewandowski was not released as he had no suitable address.

[miko]

There is something very different to squatting in an empty house or flat , to stealing someones keys and living in their home while they are on holiday.

[RufflesTheGuineaPig]

There is something very different to squatting in an empty house or flat , to stealing someones keys and living in their home while they are on holiday.

He did no damage and even cleaned up after himself.

The sentence was grossly disproportionate to the crime.

Landowners get protection while people lieing on loan applications get of with a slap on thw wrists... if anything.

[MrPin]

What is the purpose of this story?

[zebbedee]

But after Lewandowski waived his right to a pre-sentence report, the district judge said his theft and wrongful entry was without justification.

Well well, not freezing to death isn't justification then, feck wit judge.

[RufflesTheGuineaPig]

But after Lewandowski waived his right to a pre-sentence report, the district judge said his theft and wrongful entry was without justification.

Well well, not freezing to death isn't justification then, feck wit judge.

Surely the man should just have gone back to one of the several houses he owns.

I mean... that's what the judge would do.

Surely everyone owns half a dozen houses like him?

[porca misèria]

Good seasonal story innit? No room at the inn, and all that! A version for our times.

[Kazuya]

Now he can squat in a cozy jail cell for 6 months...

[Giordano Bruno]

A cruel sentence. No justification for such a sentence.

[Once in a lifetime]

In Belfast. if it happened in London they would have to release a murderer or rapist early to free a cell for him.

[tallguy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12088871

6 months!

6 f*cking months!

Meanwhile those at the top of our society are getting away with billions.

I want to see the world burn

[Protect Rural England]

Delighted to hear at long last the law is being upheld and used on transgressors.

6 months for moving into someone's home having stolen the keys. Seems fair to me.

Pity this approach to the Law is not used against the thieves who steal property or vandalise public property such as the so called "students".

This country has gone totally soft. 200 years ago we hanged people like this or shipped them off to the Colonies for stealing a loaf of bread.

Now we have pikeys roaming the land thieving anything they fancy. Not a susage is done about it. Police too frightened to go into "their" ghettos.

Then we read on here that some think the sentence is too draconian. How would you like some filthy vagrant in your home for a few days using your house as if it were his? Do that in a hotel and leave without payment and you would be rightly locked up.

[Alan B'Stard MP]

Delighted to hear at long last the law is being upheld and used on transgressors.

6 months for moving into someone's home having stolen the keys. Seems fair to me.

Pity this approach to the Law is not used against the thieves who steal property or vandalise public property such as the so called "students".

This country has gone totally soft. 200 years ago we hanged people like this or shipped them off to the Colonies for stealing a loaf of bread.

Now we have pikeys roaming the land thieving anything they fancy. Not a susage is done about it. Police too frightened to go into "their" ghettos.

Then we read on here that some think the sentence is too draconian. How would you like some filthy vagrant in your home for a few days using your house as if it were his? Do that in a hotel and leave without payment and you would be rightly locked up.

I wish I could be there to see your face when they build a honking great wind turbine in your rural paradise.

Back to the OP - you can only be charged with theft if you have the intention of permanently depriving use of the object from its proper owner.

Seems a dodgy conviction?

[singlemalt]

Delighted to hear at long last the law is being upheld and used on transgressors.

6 months for moving into someone's home having stolen the keys. Seems fair to me.

Pity this approach to the Law is not used against the thieves who steal property or vandalise public property such as the so called "students".

This country has gone totally soft. 200 years ago we hanged people like this or shipped them off to the Colonies for stealing a loaf of bread.

Now we have pikeys roaming the land thieving anything they fancy. Not a susage is done about it. Police too frightened to go into "their" ghettos.

Then we read on here that some think the sentence is too draconian. How would you like some filthy vagrant in your home for a few days using your house as if it were his? Do that in a hotel and leave without payment and you would be rightly locked up.

Only one thing missing, cat o' nine tails and 6 of the best.

[Gone baby gone]

Surely the man should just have gone back to one of the several houses he owns.

I mean... that's what the judge would do.

Surely everyone owns half a dozen houses like him?

Looks like this was a Magistrate not a Judge. Pretty sure this would have been a suspended sentence or similar if it was in front of a proper Judge.

There is a not small degree of irony that in a country where people fight and blow each other up over the correct protocol to use when worshipping the same god, there is no compassion at Christmas.

[Snafu]

Looks like this was a Magistrate not a Judge. Pretty sure this would have been a suspended sentence or similar if it was in front of a proper Judge.

There is a not small degree of irony that in a country where people fight and blow each other up over the correct protocol to use when worshipping the same god, there is no compassion at Christmas.

I personally think the UK court system is a bit of a joke. Magistrates haven't necessarily got a clue about anything! Should be proper judges, and this whole malarchy about "magistrate" and "crown court" - sodding joke. Have one court that deals with it all, less duplication of work.

[SarahBell]

The speed of it is impressive.

The reason for locking him up is the stealing of the keys. Not the harmless squatting.

He planned to do something with those keys and it's kindof nasty and creepy (That's my thought on it as a female) - but the idiot who "lost" a set of keys and didn't change the locks needs a kick up the ****.

But there are a number of homeless asylum seekers in the middle of Manchester at the moment - and no spaces in the shelters. Why? Because we can not afford to house the world.

[Protect Rural England]

I wish I could be there to see your face when they build a honking great wind turbine in your rural paradise.

Back to the OP - you can only be charged with theft if you have the intention of permanently depriving use of the object from its proper owner.

Seems a dodgy conviction?

Funny that. I have been applying for a wind turbine for ages.

Declined, declined, declined.

The CAA have a right of opinion, the Parish Council, the local planners. No neighbour will see it or hear it. I should be able to export power back to the grid.

But no. Some little people with their clip boards, living in their **ck hutches on some grim little noddy box neo georgian estate keep telling me what we can and cannot do.

I'd love to see your face when an incinerator is placed downwind of you to burn all your waste.

[Bloo Loo]

Looks like this was a Magistrate not a Judge. Pretty sure this would have been a suspended sentence or similar if it was in front of a proper Judge.

There is a not small degree of irony that in a country where people fight and blow each other up over the correct protocol to use when worshipping the same god, there is no compassion at Christmas.

The judge is full of campassion IMPO

instead of a society that lets a man sleep rough in -10C, the man now has 3 meals a day, a heated room and will be able to leave this hotel in April, when its a bt warmer.

See, its The Ways and Means Act 2010 sec 1 the judge used...if you cant save him through doing the right thing, them cheat the system.

[Protect Rural England]

Looks like this was a Magistrate not a Judge. Pretty sure this would have been a suspended sentence or similar if it was in front of a proper Judge.

There is a not small degree of irony that in a country where people fight and blow each other up over the correct protocol to use when worshipping the same god, there is no compassion at Christmas.

Only a Judge can pass a custodial sentence.