Another ?menace to society? was jailed for five years in Supreme Court yesterday after pleading guilty to seven burglary charges.

Stanley Eugene Ronald Davis, 38, of no fixed abode, was originally charged with 18 counts of stealing and burglary on different dates in 2003 and 2004. Davis pleaded guilty to seven counts of burglary from December 2003 to June 2004. The total value of the items he stole was $3,037.

?Because of your drug problem, you are a menace to society,? Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller said. ?You have an atrocious record.?

Mrs. Justice Wade-Miller ordered Davis to attend educational programmes at the Westgate Correctional Facility.

And he must stay at the Camp Spirit drug rehabilitation programme after his release from prison.

Lawyer Elizabeth Christopher said her client?s spirit was willing to get off drugs but his body was weak.

Crown counsel Shakira Dill said the maximum penalty for burglary was ten years, but Davis only got five.

Before the judge handed down his sentence to him, Davis told the court he wanted to apologise to his victims.

?I apologise to all members of this community I offended against,? he said. ?I can understand them having animosity towards me.?

Also yesterday, 43-year-old Southampton man was jailed for six months in Magistrates? Court yesterday for stealing a broken laptop.

Alvin Chapman pleaded guilty to stealing the laptop, property of Raymond Gibbons, from Computer City in Hamilton on April 16.

Crown counsel Oonagh Vaucrosson told the court how Mr. Gibbons dropped his laptop off at the shop for repairs.

The shop assistant placed the laptop behind the counter on the ground, but during his routine walk around the store before locking up, the general manager noticed the laptop was missing.

She said he assumed it had been repaired and that Mr. Gibbons had picked it up, but when Mr. Gibbons returned a few days later for the laptop, the general manager realised it had been stolen.

She said he viewed the store?s CCTV recordings for the day in question.

Mrs. Vaucrosson told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner that Chapman was caught on tape entering the store, leaning over the counter and taking the laptop.

She said the general manager gave the CCTV footage to the Police who recognised the man as Chapman and went to his home in Southampton.

However Police did not find the laptop and questioned Chapman about it.

She said he (Chapman) admitted to taking it, but told Police he had dumped it at Tynes Bay Incinerator.

When asked if he had anything to say, Chapman told the court that he was sorry for his actions and didn?t know what else to do.

?Why did you destroy the laptop at Tynes Bay?? Mr. Warner asked.

Chapman said he stole the laptop to sell it, but when it opened it he noticed it was not working so he ?got rid of it?.

He told the court that he was under a lot of pressure when he stole it because his brother had just died.

?I don?t understand how the loss of a family member can drive you to steal something. That?s no excuse,? Mr. Warner told Chapman, who stood looking down at the ground and shaking his head.

Chapman replied that he did not know what else to do.

?I couldn?t sell it, so I threw it away,? he said.

In sentencing him, Mr. Warner told Chapman since he was so callous about it, he would go to jail for six months.

?I don?t think there?s any other way to deal with you,? Mr. Warner said.

On the matter of outstanding traffic fines that Chapman had failed to pay, Mr. Warner sentenced Chapman to three months imprisonment. The sentence will run concurrent with the six months sentence.

A smiling Chapman thanked Mr. Warner before being escorted from the court.

?Last week, Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves called Coolridge Winslow Eve, 46, of Southampton, a ?real menace to society.?

Eve, who has an extensive criminal record, was handed down the maximum sentence of ten years in prison for a burglary charge.