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A man has narrowly avoided a jail term for his involvement in a book theft ring that Judge Murray Abbott said deprived New Zealand of many texts that were part of its heritage.
The Christchurch District Court judge told 44-year-old Tyler Scott Simpson that the feelings of resentment expressed by library staff in their victim impact statements could be readily understood.
Reparations were able to be paid in full by Simpson yesterday by borrowing on a mortgage and a credit card account.
But, said Judge Abbott, "I suspect that for some of the libraries that will receive cheques from the collections unit, the money will be of little solace bearing in mind that the books covered by the funds in question have been lost forever."
He sentenced Simpson to 250 hours of community work and ordered the full and immediate reparation payment offered through defence counsel Simon Shamy of $10,924.
Last month Simpson admitted one charge of receiving 17 books stolen from university and public libraries.
They were among the rare and valuable books stolen, "laundered" of their library marks, and then resold by what the police called the Operation Pukapuka book theft ring.
Four other men have already been sentenced for their part, and one of them - Simpson's brother, who was regarded as the ringleader - has gone to jail for three years. Judge Abbott accepted that Simpson had a much lesser role than his brother.
Simpson had arranged to sell the stolen books through the Bloomsbury auction house in London.
Mr Shamy told the court that Simpson was turning his life around, completing a course at Alcoholics Anonymous, taking treatment for depression, and working in self-employment for 50 hours a week.
Crown prosecutor Craig Ruane urged that Simpson be jailed for up to two years with leave to apply for home detention "to discourage others from closing their eyes to the source of the property that they acquire".
-NZPA
