A 25-year-old Bruges man has received an eight-month prison sentence and a €400 fine after two instances of shoplifting where he stole a smartwatch, two lobsters, and a duck breast fillet.
The man was caught on 20th January stealing two lobsters and a packet of duck breast fillet from Carrefour in Bruges. When followed by an undercover security officer, he illicitly stashed his stolen items, worth €60, into nearby bushes.
Further investigations revealed that three days prior at Colruyt in Bruges, he had also stolen a €50 smartwatch. Sam J. regularly purchased insignificant items on departure to evade suspicion.
The prosecutor, Jochen van Aalst, heavily pinpointed the offender’s extensive criminal history. Sam J. received a fifteen-month effective prison sentence for breaking into a yacht in Ostend in December 2022. Plus, the Ghent Court of Appeals reduced his 37-month sentence to 18 months in October 2022. Additionally, he has been caught shoplifting on several occasions in the past years.
Van Aalst raised a profound question about the societal implication of such an insoluble thief: "What can we, as a society, do about someone like this?" He described the defendant as a hardened, incorrigible thief and suggested an 18-month effective sentence to ensure local merchants’ safety and peace of mind.
While the defence attorney did not dispute the facts, he successfully pleaded for a more lenient punishment.
Langerock contended that the prosecutor’s demand was disproportionate. It was also noted that since January, Sam J. has reportedly not committed any new offences, which was marked as an achievement considering his history.
