Hawke's Bay career jailbird looks for a clean break

Jamie Trevor McColl, 43, of Napier, appeared in Napier District Court this week after burgling the Hawke's Bay Club. Photo / File

One of Hawke's Bay's most prolific criminals has taken on the ultimate test of good faith by telling a judge how he wants to close the book on a history of almost 20 pages of convictions which have earned him 16 stints in jail.

It came as Jamie Trevor McColl, 43, of Napier, appeared in Napier District Court yesterday on a charge of burgling once-common legal fraternity hangout the Hawke's Bay Club, and five charges of using club cheques he stole in the raid on the night of May 15.

Having previously pleaded guilty, he was sentenced by to five months' home detention by Judge Arthur Tompkins, visiting for the week from the Wellington-Hutt Valley area.

McColl and the Judge began an unusual line of communication while waiting for defence counsel Eric Forster who was absent in another court. McColl complained he hadn't been able to see the lawyer and the lawyer hadn't contact him.

"I deserve respect," he said, before conceding: "There's not a lot I do deserve."

Later McColl said he's off the alcohol, medication he's using has stopped him using the "substances" he used to do, and he wants to work to gain some trust going into business selling metalwork for which he's got a small workshop at home and for which he's already gained some recognition through the art gallery run by his mother.

He said he's already got clients from the internet, and, stepping forward in the court at the judge's request, his mother spoke of how he was "quite proud of himself".

She said he had had a "long battle" with his problems, and wanted to put them behind, she said, adding: "He sometimes shoots himself in the foot."

"I've been drinking since I was 14," McColl told the Judge, reassuring him he's now off the alcohol and saying: "It makes me sick thinking about it."

Asked by the Judge what he first went to jail for and when, he said he'd been 19.

"I got drunk, blacked out and someone convinced me into robbing a service station," he said.

He'd grabbed a whiskey bottle, smashed it and went into the shop, and had since committed offences, mainly of theft, dishonesty and fraud "all over the North Island".

Arguing for a sentence "something less than imprisonment", Mr Forster said the latest offence was a "relapse", and McColl knew he had "stuffed-up" and that if he wants his business to grow he has to show he's "honest and reliable".

Mr Forster said McColl had already made reparation for other items stolen in the burglary and never recovered, at a rate more than the value advised by police, and would have paid reparation for the cheques had it not been for banking systems issues.

McColl was ordered to pay reparation of $735 to the bank.