Criminals who target visitors are also harming the Island’s tourism business — and it should reflect in their prison time.This was the assertion of Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner, who took a sharp line in sentencing serial burglar Jamiko Bean.Magistrates’ Court heard that Bean, who yesterday was jailed for four years, had engaged in “a drug-induced spree” — racking up 15 offences in one month.Remarking that offences against visitors present a “vexing situation” in the Island’s bid to draw tourists, Mr Warner opened Bean’s sentencing with two June 12 incidents at Warwick’s Sandpiper Guest Apartments.Bean was unsuccessful with the first apartment, which was locked — but a visiting Canadian family was spending the last night of their Bermuda holiday in another unit, where Bean gained entry.According to Crown counsel Maria Sofianos, a visitor was awoken while his wife was sleeping, and confronted Bean in the kitchen.Bean, whose face was covered, fled with a $700 new phone belonging to their son.In a victim impact statement, the guest — named at an earlier court appearance as Reuben Stroble — said they had been visiting the Island for a family wedding.“Although there was no physical confrontation between Mr Bean and myself, the potential for a violent incident was very real,” he wrote.“My wife, who was sleeping at the time, was very upset over the realisation of the event and the invasion of her personal space and safety, at a time of vulnerability.“Although no one was physically injured, the immediate impact on my family should not be ignored by the courts in the sentencing process.”Mr Warner gave two years in jail for the attempted break-in, and four years for breaking in and stealing. All sentences were concurrent.In considering Bean’s litany of crimes, which ranged from prowling to thefts of items such as liquor, diapers and even paperwork from a preschool, Mr Warner observed: “The Chief Justice recently had something to say about breaking and entering in hotel rooms.”He continued: “In offences against tourists, the wider economic impact on the tourist industry is a matter that can properly be considered.”Of the victims, he said: “They came to Bermuda, and implicitly, we are guaranteeing their safety and their enjoyment of this stay.”Breaking into guest accommodation, Mr Warner continued, “must be discouraged, as the Chief Justice has recently said”.Offences against visitors “have a far more aggravating effect, and a wider impact on the tourist industry as a whole”.“Government spends millions bringing people here — and to have them treated in this way must be a vexing situation, to say the least.”Justice Kawaley told The Royal Gazette that Mr Warner had alluded to remarks given at the appeal of a one-year sentence for hotel burglar Stanley Davis, who in 2010 broke into a Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel room while an older US couple was asleep inside.Following a struggle with visitor Ronald Keaton, who confronted Davis, the burglar claimed to have a firearm before leaping, empty-handed, from the balcony.Davis was jailed 12 months, but his sentence was increased to 30 months following a June 1 hearing before the Court of Appeal.In his judgement, Justice Kawaley remarked: “The hotel in question was not simply a tourist resort; it was also — notoriously — one of the main hotels patronised by international business visitors.”He added: “Having regard to the crucial dual role played by international business and tourism in Bermuda’s currently somewhat fragile economy, the relevant offence may also be fairly viewed as an indirect attack on the commercial interests of Bermuda residents as a whole.”In considering other factors, such as the victims’ age, Justice Kawaley observed that “the offence potentially caused or risked causing significant damage to Bermuda’s commercial interests and reputation, as it occurred in this jurisdiction’s only large ‘city’ hotel”.The Chief Justice said he had tried to set out some “broad judicial guidance” for the sentencing of breaking and entering cases in Magistrates’ Court.Although Mr Warner said he anticipated the Supreme Court would give guidance on “the direction and limitations” of victim impact statements, the court heard several such accounts as Bean, who has been in custody since last month, sat in the dock.The manager of Lindo’s Family Foods, where Bean stole a bottle of vodka, wrote to the court: “I am convinced that if judges were witness to these crimes, the penalties would be much more severe.”Mr Moniz reported that in about half of shoplifting cases, “the offender gives up without a fight — in the other 50 percent, they violently resist apprehension”.In the May 23 incidents at the Warwick supermarket, the court heard that Bean made his way into an employee area, pretended to be an employee, and alarmed customers and staff in a wild escape attempt, during which he was nearly struck by a delivery van.Mr Moniz said Bean had appeared to be “on something”, attempting to strike another store manager and vaulting a long flight of stairs in “superhuman” speed.The court heard another statement from a Southampton woman, who said she was left fearful and upset when her $3,400 bike was taken from outside her residence on the night of June 14.And a female resident of a Belvedere Road, Devonshire home wrote that she was “shocked, nervous, and remains fearful” after waking around 11pm on June 14 to find her front door open. She was confronted by Bean, who demanded money and ran off with her partner’s trousers.Bean told the court: “I apologise for my actions, the things I have done, and whoever I hurt or offended. I was going through a little emotional problem and I thought that by going back into drugs, it would make things easiest for me.”In passing sentence, Mr Warner noted that Bean had attended drug court last year — but by his own admission had graduated from the programme while still using drugs.Mr Warner concluded: “This defendant can’t come here now and say he was not helped. He said out of his own mouth that he fooled everybody. Fooling everybody includes fooling yourself.”All the sentences are to run concurrently, from June 19.