A man described as a recidivist burglar has been sent back to prison after he continued to offend while on bail.
Kelvin Whiting, 28, was convicted of two counts of burglary and one count of theft and sentenced to two years, three months in prison, and ordered to pay $1069 reparation by Judge David Cameron.
On September 26 this year, Whiting went into New World supermarket, in breach of a two-year trespass notice, and stuffed two packs of steak and a pack of bacon under his clothing.
He was stopped as he went to leave the store and apprehended. He had tried to put the meat back in the aisle in another location, but only after realising he had come to staff attention.
On October 7 or 8, he went to an address after attending a party and a short time after arriving the victim left him and another person in the house. While he was away, Whiting and his associate stole his Playstation and controller from his bedroom and left.
It was not recovered.
On November 22-23, while on bail, Whiting went to an address in Wanganui, forced a bedroom window open and stole a number of items, including a Nokia cellphone, an ammeter, and a large amount of alcohol.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Steve Butler said because he had visited the address previously, and seemed to know what he was looking for when he committed the offence, it could be considered premeditated.
Whiting's lawyer, Stephen Ross, said in the past Whiting had been sent to prison for periods of 2 years and 18 months, and he still hadn't been deterred.
However, his probation report made it clear he was tired of the path he was on and he had confirmed that with him, but while he started well, it didn't always end well.
Whiting was transient, with low self-esteem and low coping skills, and while he could be called recidivist, he was not committing premeditated, planned burglaries to make a living. Rather, they were a "spontaneous response to circumstances".
Judge Cameron said Whiting had a "very bad" criminal history from 2001-11. He was imprisoned for burglary convictions in 2006, 2007, 2008, and earlier this year.
"You are clearly a recidivist burglar", he said.
His probation report showed his current offences followed a cyclic pattern of offending, imprisonment, breaching release conditions with further offending and reimprisonment.
Judge Cameron said significant terms of imprisonment had not broken this cycle and he had no choice but to send him back to prison in the hope that one day it would dawn on him that this type of offending had to cease, or he would spend most of his life in prison.