Nine months on the run earns man nine months in jail

The man was apprehended only minutes after appearing on Police Ten 7. Photo / Thinkstock

A man who spent nine months on the run from police has been jailed for the same amount of time.

In Greymouth District Court yesterday, Judge Noel Walsh told Wanganui man William Allister Unsworth his past had caught up with him and turned his immediate future to prison.

Unsworth, 24, was apprehended in the Greymouth on August 5, just minutes after his case was featured on the TV programme Police Ten 7.

He had been on the run from Greymouth police since January but was already on the run from Wanganui when he arrived on the West Coast in 2011.

He appeared yesterday on numerous charges including two of drink-driving, one of unlawfully using a stolen cheque and others of stealing beer and wine from a Wanganui supermarket, stealing wine from a Wellington store and stealing a beanie from a Greymouth service station.

Lawyer Eymard Bradley said Unsworth had found the past five weeks on remand in custody difficult.

But Judge Walsh said Unsworth always found trouble.

"You left school to join the army but got dismissed for drug use and theft. You were to appear for sentencing here in January but told the probation officer that if you didn't like his report you would go fishing instead of appearing in court," the judge said, jailing him for nine months.

-The Greymouth Star