A Sunderland man who brazenly stole blue lights from the top of a police car has been jailed by Magistrates.
David Ryan McBeth, 30, of Bevan Avenue, Ryhope, admitted one charge of theft when he appeared at South Tyneside Magistrates' Court on Thursday, 19th March 2020.
Theft is an either way offence contrary to section 1 of the Theft Act 1968. The maximum penalty for theft is 7 years in custody. We have previously written an article on the legalities surrounding theft.
Magistrates heard that the cocky career criminal clambered onto a British Transport Police car parked outside Sunderland railway station during the early hours of Boxing Day 2018.
CCTV footage caught the moment that bricklayer McBeth, who has extensive previous including robbery and GBH, kicked the blue light bar from its fixings before casually walking away with it over his shoulder. The lights, which have never been recovered, were valued at £1,020.
Nicki Forster, prosecuting, said the Christmas theft deprived the police of "a critical resource" at a busy time.
Miss Forster said: "One of the males is seen to jump several times on the police car bonnet and to try to remove the blue bar from the vehicle while the other male looked on."
Charlie Carr, mitigating, said: "There was no rhyme or reason why he has done what he has done.
"It was a moment of madness after Christmas Day."
McBeth denied the offence until the morning of his trial, at which point he changed his plea to guilty.
District Judge Kate Meek said: "It is also in anyone's definition anti-social behaviour which you have numerous previous offences for.
"It has caused significant inconvenience to the police and significant inconvenience to various members of the public because the police car was out of action."
Judge Meek sentenced McBeth to 10 weeks in custody.
He was also ordered to pay £115 victim surcharge, but no award was made for compensation.
PC Michael Proudfoot, of the British Transport Police, said: "This was an act of sheer stupidity, he targeted a squad car in clear view of cameras and would not stop until he got hold of the emergency lights. You can only imagine he did this for some nonsense bragging rights."
"What he clearly didn’t consider is that it would force us to take a car out of action and cost the police time and money to get it replaced. Such selfishness isn’t something we or the courts take lightly and that’s why he’s been jailed."
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