Thief's honesty saves him from jail
A serial thief who "plagued" the Black Country while committing 33 crimes in three months involving around £10,000 worth of property has been saved from jail - by his honesty.
A serial thief who "plagued" the Black Country while committing 33 crimes in three months involving around £10,000 worth of property has been saved from jail - by his honesty.
Peter O'Neill was twice arrested during the spree but was freed on bail on each occasion to carry on offending.
He was finally locked up when caught red handed burgling a house, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
Then the 26-year-old admitted the full extent of his recent offending to detectives, who drove him round Walsall to identify where he had carried out some of the crimes.
Some would never have been solved without the help of O'Neill, the court heard yesterday.
Judge Martin Walsh told him: "I had pencilled in a 27-month prison sentence for you, but have been persuaded to draw back from that because of your frankness in bringing the full extent of your offending to the police."
O'Neill from Holden Crescent, Coalpool, Walsall, admitted seven thefts from cars, two burglaries and a case of shoplifting.
He also asked for 24 other thefts from vehicles to be taken into consideration.
The burglaries involved goods worth around £6,000 while up to £4,000 property was stolen by him from cars.
Six packets of meat and two blocks of cheese were shoplifted from Asda, Bloxwich.
Prosecutor Mr Warren Stanier said O'Neill was originally arrested after being seen by police officers smashing the windows of two cars parked in Elmore Green Road, Bloxwich and stealing their sat navs on July 17. He was freed on bail and committed further crimes before being re-arrested on August 5.
O'Neill was detained in custody after being caught burgling a house in Wenlock Gardens, Walsall, on September 8 and then gave full details of his one-man crimewave.
Miss Wendy Miller, defending, said: "He wanted to wipe the slate clean and police officers on the case found his honesty quite remarkable.
"The spree of offences came when he went off the rails, lost his job, his flat and his girlfriend and started taking drugs again."
O'Neill was given a three-year community order with high intensity drug rehabilitation treatment, which will be monitored monthly by the court, and a four-month night-time curfew. He told the judge: "Believe me, I will stick with this."
