One refrain we keep hearing from the federal government follows the line of ‘do the crime, do the time.’
The crackdown promised by the upper level of government is aimed at more serious and violent wrongdoing. But we’re seeing a bit of a turn here in Nova Scotia on what many might think of as crime of a petty nature.
Last week, three men from Halifax who were convicted of going on a shoplifting spree were each sentenced to 30 months in prison.
We’re not talking about someone picking something up off a shelf and tucking it in a pocket, hoping store staff won’t notice – a serious enough act in itself. In this case, court evidence showed the three took more than $20,000 worth of goods from five stores in the New Minas area.
They ended up pleading guilty to one count of theft over $5,000, and four counts of theft under $5,000.
On top of that, RCMP described the operation of the three men as “well organized.”
That might sound familiar to people who follow the ‘crime sheets’ in their daily newspaper. A typical survey of court notes will turn up people who have turned shoplifting ventures into a thriving criminal business, trying to get away with hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of goods. They might even make it into a town-to-town roll to help cover their tracks.
A more typical sentence involves fines and paying restitution. But one might also note in some cases judges are making the monetary penalties substantial, since otherwise they’d be doing little more than put a speed bump in the way of such operations – a cost of doing business, as it were.
This is perhaps a reflection of higher unemployment times that see other ripoffs such as gas and dash.
We must keep in mind that the loss of merchandise in such a way, along with extra costs paid by retailers for security, ends up costing us all.
It’s much welcome to see judges treating this kind of crime with the serious response it deserves.
