"Sophisticated theft"... of a pork pie and coffee

Monday 29 October 2018

A 40 hour community service order was handed to a woman who was caught stealing a pork pie, coffee essence and cotton buds from the L'Islet Food Hall.

Despite being caught redhanded, and admitting the theft in police interviews, Michelle Desperques still went on to plead not guilty and fought her side in a trial.

While the items were only valued at £6.71, Judge Cherry McMillan said she wanted to send a message to people that "attempting to pull the wool over everyone's eyes" was not something that was going to be tolerated. 

Desperques represented herself in court, and in trial was "bold enough" to argue her case despite evidence of her guilt being "well past 'beyond reasonable doubt' ". 

The incident itself took place on 13 May this year, when the woman bought a number of items from the Food Hall, except for the items she stole which she put into a personal bag and didn't pay for.

Initially, her defence was that she omitted to pay for those specific items, but when questioned by police, she admitted it was intentional. Then in court, the defendant reverted back to her original story, but was found guilty.

Judge McMillan said: "Your presentation was the exact opposite of someone's who is concerned about being dishonest.

"On the face of it, this is one of the most minor matters I have had to deal with, but your actions in this trial have made me concerned this was all preplanned, to the point of being sophisticated. You have no sympathy or remorse for anyone but to yourself because you were caught and arrested. I am simply perplexed by your boldness."

Following the trial, a probation report was requested to examine whether there was a psychological reason for the woman's actions, as she was previously of good character. But nothing was identified.

"It is a rare thing to say in court, but how dare you, you need to do some reparatory work for this." 

Pictured: The items were stolen from the L'islet Food Hall.