The End of a Stolen Golf R story
Discussion
There’s inevitably hundreds of threads about stolen Golf Rs. I thought I’d share my experience because - unlike the vast majority of people - they actually caught the guy that stole mine and he was charged. The whole stolen car game seems to either be a tertiary enterprise of bigger organised crime gangs or it’s the focus of gangs exporting them or breaking them for parts etc. That seems to be what I garnered from the investigating police officers at least.
Now, the troubling bit. The guy that stole my car (and plead guilty) received a 12 month suspended sentence and 150 hours community service. I know we don’t often get convictions from car thefts but with such sentences I feel like a mug for living a legitimate, crime-free life. Perhaps I’m being unreasonable. The legal professionals are more qualified to make these judgements after all, but I can’t help but think the ‘car crime epidemic’ will continue so long as sentences are relatively palatable. For what it’s worth, the guy had previous for housebreaking and motor vehicle theft.
Now, the troubling bit. The guy that stole my car (and plead guilty) received a 12 month suspended sentence and 150 hours community service. I know we don’t often get convictions from car thefts but with such sentences I feel like a mug for living a legitimate, crime-free life. Perhaps I’m being unreasonable. The legal professionals are more qualified to make these judgements after all, but I can’t help but think the ‘car crime epidemic’ will continue so long as sentences are relatively palatable. For what it’s worth, the guy had previous for housebreaking and motor vehicle theft.
Some very interesting replies and debate. I should say, in the interest of said debate, I work with offenders - albeit in a limited capacity. I work with criminal justice social workers, sit in meetings with the ‘type’ of men that nicked my car and listen to how they struggle, how they take it out on their girlfriend, how they can’t support their kids, how they’re struggling with drink and drugs, how they can’t get a job. If there’s a sympathetic ear, it’s mine. Yet I still don’t feel justice. The sentence was merely for property theft and seems not to consider how massively something so (in the scheme of things) minor has affected my family so much. I don’t how it could though. The system is so stretched. I do get it.
Other points of note, which will hopefully demonstrate just how woeful the state of affairs really are:
- The car was recovered by me. I happened upon it (sounds hard to believe but I found it after a ‘tip off’ from one of those aforementioned undesirable sorts).
- It didn’t ping any ANPR but I since found out that’s because there wasn’t any ANPR to have been pinged and the police just used it as a stock response and could never actually check ANPR because it didn’t exist.
- His DNA was left on a weapon left in my house. I presume he’d have got a harsher sentence had he been found with said weapon in public than what he received for leaving it behind. Probably why he did it.
- They couldn’t track the thief down and so just waited until he was due in court for something else (low and behold he turned up) and they got him there.
- Another five cars were stolen in the town in the week preceding and week after my car getting stolen.
- According the the guy’s Instagram (yep, I looked) he likes to pose in his Stone Island tracksuit beside quite specific cars in a grey-looking council estate: Jag F-Types, RS4, S3, M3s.
- According to his Facebook (I had to check - sorry) he’s now a porter in an NHS hospital. He wasn’t when I first checked his name out a year ago.
- The gang are known to the police. A woman nearby where my car was found reported someone acting suspiciously, hanging about the car park, endlessly looping it and ultimately having an animated phone call when he must’ve discovered the car was recovered. According to the police, they knew who this man was ‘just can’t do anything about it’
- It took 9 months for him to be charged to being sentenced.
Other points of note, which will hopefully demonstrate just how woeful the state of affairs really are:
- The car was recovered by me. I happened upon it (sounds hard to believe but I found it after a ‘tip off’ from one of those aforementioned undesirable sorts).
- It didn’t ping any ANPR but I since found out that’s because there wasn’t any ANPR to have been pinged and the police just used it as a stock response and could never actually check ANPR because it didn’t exist.
- His DNA was left on a weapon left in my house. I presume he’d have got a harsher sentence had he been found with said weapon in public than what he received for leaving it behind. Probably why he did it.
- They couldn’t track the thief down and so just waited until he was due in court for something else (low and behold he turned up) and they got him there.
- Another five cars were stolen in the town in the week preceding and week after my car getting stolen.
- According the the guy’s Instagram (yep, I looked) he likes to pose in his Stone Island tracksuit beside quite specific cars in a grey-looking council estate: Jag F-Types, RS4, S3, M3s.
- According to his Facebook (I had to check - sorry) he’s now a porter in an NHS hospital. He wasn’t when I first checked his name out a year ago.
- The gang are known to the police. A woman nearby where my car was found reported someone acting suspiciously, hanging about the car park, endlessly looping it and ultimately having an animated phone call when he must’ve discovered the car was recovered. According to the police, they knew who this man was ‘just can’t do anything about it’
- It took 9 months for him to be charged to being sentenced.
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