Dying woman theft victim: man jailed

A TERMINALLYILL Dunedin woman who was ripped off by a man she trusted says she doubts she will see the stolen cash before she dies.

Adam Charlett (23) appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after admitting a charge of using a document for a pecuniary advantage, burglary and theft.

The court heard the defendant had struck up a relationship with the 80yearold woman and helped her buy items she required.

On January 29, he asked for $10 for a drink.

The woman gave him her eftpos card to withdraw the funds but Charlett instead went to a Princes St liquor store, where he spent $35 on booze.

He then went to a service station and splurged another $31.

The victim never got her card back and had to pay the bank $5 for a replacement.

Judge Kevin Phillips said her written statement was ‘‘harrowing really’’.

‘‘She trusted you and you totally let her down,’’ he said.

The woman wrote that she did not expect to be alive to see the money repaid.

She asked that it be given to charity in that case.

Charlett’s situation was aggravated by the fact the court had previously worked so hard to accommodate him in a rehabilitative sentence, the judge said.

Last year, significant efforts were made to allow him a sen tence of intensive supervision for a range of nuisance and dishonesty offences he committed.

He responded by breaching the sentence.

Again, people arranged immediate housing at short notice to get Charlett the help he needed.

And again, the man breached the conditions of the sentence.

‘‘You seemed to go out of your way to get drunk and act inappropriately,’’ Judge Phillips said.

Defence counsel Sophia Thorburn said Charlett had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and presented a conundrum for those treating him.

‘‘You have absolutely no insight into your illness. You have no insight into the impact on you of your substance abuse,’’ the judge said.

‘‘Overall, you have little, if any, understanding of your offending, little or any appreciation of the harm you occasioned to people.’’

Charlett was also sentenced over the theft of a $600 bike shortly before using the woman’s bank card; and a burglary of alcohol from adult-entertainment venue Stilettos in February.

The defendant’s father — who had himself recently been cleared of serious charges — made an ad hoc plea from the public gallery to the judge to keep his son out of prison.

But Judge Phillips said there were no other options.

Charlett was jailed for 18 months and ordered to make reparation of $351.

❛ She trusted you and you totally let her down