Ashley Lyle Scarlett drove away with a car while the owner was right beside it and the family dog was in the back.
“It is difficult to imagine a more brazen theft of a vehicle,” said Christchurch District Court Judge Tom Gilbert as he jailed Scarlett for 18 months.
Diego the German Shepherd was released by 26-year-old Scarlett and returned to the family, but the $20,000 Mitsubish Pajero has never been found.
Nor was the laptop containing a doctoral thesis that Scarlett stole from a different car parked in Riccarton Avenue on March 9.
Judge Gilbert told Scarlett: “A doctorate involves a long course of hard work over several years, the result of which is writing a thesis. This student’s thesis was on the laptop you stole and she did not have a back-up.
“She spent the next two months reconstructing the hard work she had put in. The type of work and dedication she showed with that work is probably foreign to you, but (the loss) would have been absolutely devastating for her.”
Scarlett was appearing for sentence after pleading guilty on Monday to charges of unlawfully taking the car, unlawfully getting into a car, two thefts, breach of community work, possession of a psycho-active substance, driving while forbidden, and failing to answer bail.
Defence counsel Lee Lee Heah urged that a home detention sentence be imposed. Scarlett was still a young man and should not be “written off” by the court, because he could be rehabilitated.
Judge Gilbert said he had stolen iPads, laptop, gym gear, cellphone, cash and cards from the cars he raided.
The car Mitsubishi was taken from the forecourt of a service station in Ilam while the owner was momentarily out of the car putting his dog in the back. Scarlett simply hopped in the car, locked the front doors and drove off with the dog in the back.
Diego was found later in Chatswood Place, Bishopdale, after the incident was posted on social media.
Scarlett said he took the car because he “just needed a ride home”.
The judge noted that Scarlett had been on electronically monitored bail but had breached it. His history of non-compliance with sentences and court orders made home detention out of the question.
“What you did wasn’t just to nameless, faceless people, but it was to people who have been severely affected by your actions,” said the judge.
He imposed a series of concurrent jail terms totalling 18 months, and ordered Scarlett to pay reparations of $3830 for the victims’ losses.
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