67th conviction lands man in jail despite pleas

David Anthony Griffith, with 67 convictions to his name, broke down in the dock of the District ‘A’ Traffic Court as he was sentenced to nine months in prison for a series of thefts from Popular Discounts last year.

He had pleaded for another chance to stay out of jail.

“If I could be granted a fine, I would take money out of my pay cheque and pay for these things. I am working now from Monday to Sunday on a construction site. I have been out of prison for the past five years and three months,” he told Magistrate Alison Burke, moments after admitting to three thefts from Popular Discounts.

The crimes include stealing: three bottles of Listerine and two bottles of Equiline, valued at $85.95, on March 1, 2024; three blocks of cheese, valued at $143.97, on November 16, 2024; and six deodorants, valued at $47.94, on November 23, 2024.

Court prosecutor Station Sergeant St Clair Phillips said that in each of the cases, Griffith had walked into the supermarket, removed the items from the shelves and walked out without paying. His actions were caught on the CCTV cameras.

“When I committed these offences last year, I had been smoking. I was living at Kemar Saffrey homeless shelter, and you couldn’t stay there during the day, so I used to walk the road from 6 til 6 doing ignorance, and I find myself in those predicaments,” he told the court.

Noting that the majority of Griffith’s convictions were for theft, Magistrate Burke sentenced him to three months for each offence, ordering that the terms run consecutively.