'Career crim' caught with 29 sets of keys

The man was caught driving a stolen ute with 29 different sets of car keys on him. Photo / Thinkstock

A "career criminal'' with 183 previous convictions has been jailed after being caught driving a stolen vehicle with 29 different sets of car keys on him.

Christopher Bryan Woodcock, 50, was caught last week after the person who owned the stolen utility he was driving recognised it and called police.

The vehicle had been stolen three days earlier. When police pulled over the Mazda ute, Woodcock was driving. He told officers he found the car on the side of the road.

Inside the vehicle were 28 sets of car keys, which did not belong to the vehicle's owner, and a key in the ignition that did not belong to the vehicle.

A large number of the tools belonging to the ute's owner and an employee were missing. Some were recovered from Woodcock's home.

In the Whanganui District Court yesterday, defence counsel Peter Brosnahan said Woodcock pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, and waived a pre-sentence report.

He had no prospect of paying reparation, around $4000, to the vehicle owner.

Judge Dugald Matheson said the victim in the offence was very angry because the theft of his ute and tools had interfered with his working life.

Woodcock was disqualified from driving indefinitely on October 21, 2011.

With 183 previous convictions and 105 sentences of imprisonment, he was a "career criminal'', the judge said.

"You have proven you are incapable of living in the community without committing crime.''

Judge Matheson said he was most concerned that the victim was out of pocket. However, Woodcock was going to prison, and it was futile to impose reparation, because it was not going to be paid.

But the victim had full right to seek that money in a civil court, he told Woodcock.

Judge Matheson called the event a "flagrant and brazen'' piece of driving, which occurred shortly after Woodcock had been released from custody, where he had been held on a charge of driving while disqualified.

Woodcock was convicted of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, theft from a car (over $1000), possession of instruments for conversion, and driving while disqualified.

He was sentenced to 18 months in jail and disqualified from driving for 12 months, starting in October.