A man who has appeared in court 15 times has been sentenced to six months in jail, taking into account his 74 prior convictions.
Owen Collyns-Aislabie appeared in Masterton District Court on Tuesday, facing four charges relating to theft, dishonesty, and breaching supervision.
A pre-sentence report stated that Collyns-Aislabie had previously appeared in court on 15 occasions and had 74 convictions.
The offence for which he was sentenced on Tuesday was a vehicle break-in at a car park on Masterton’s Queen St in June.
On June 15 the victim parked her vehicle there at 9am, and Judge Nicola Wills said Collyns-Aislabie arrived at the address two hours later.
“You entered the car park and urinated near the victim’s car,” said Wills.
“You looked in all the windows of the parked vehicles, checking if they were unlocked.”
After gaining entry to the car, Collyns-Aislabie took her wallet and keys from inside before going on a shopping spree with her credit card, only stopping when the card was declined on the fifth transaction.
A search warrant was executed at Collyns-Aislabie’s Masterton residence on June 21, where a wallet from a previous theft reported to police was found.
Collyns-Aislabie said a friend had left the wallet in the sleepout but would not provide police with a name.
The defendant didn’t have a permanent address listed.
Defence lawyer Ian Hard requested that the defendant be remanded briefly so a permanent residence could be found.
“He is only a very young man,” Hard said.
“If there could be a brief remand to allow for any possible addresses to be checked out.”
But when this was proposed to the defendant, Collyns-Aislabie said he didn’t want to prolong sentencing.
“I want to be sentenced today,” he said.
Judge Wills said due to a lack of engagement in previous community-based sentences and no significant gaps in prior offending, it was likely the defendant would re-offend.
He was given a six-month prison sentence, taking into account a two-month discount for a guilty plea.
He was also ordered to make weekly contributions towards a $500 direct reparation fee.
“When you get out, you’ll have a fresh start,” Wills said.
“But it’s up to you what you do with it.”
