A man who received two brand new cars knowing they were stolen was jailed for a year.

Magistrates' Court heard last week how Jamal Nisbett, 20, of Cameron Close, Smith's, had a long list of previous convictions for stealing dating back to his childhood and had been the subject of numerous social inquiry reports.

He pleaded guilty to receiving a black Opel sedan, worth $34,000, between June 20 and 29 this year from someone at Spittal Pond. The car had been stolen earlier from the HWP Group, when he knew it had been stolen.

He also admitted a similar charge of accepting an Opel car, which had been taken from Bermuda Shine Company and was worth $33,000, from a man at Spittal Pond.

Nisbett had previously told Police he believed he had just been meeting the man, John Stamppar, to test drive the cars.

And he also admitted receiving a number of work tools, which were the property of Bermuda Cabling Systems, worth more than $2,000 between June 26 and 29.

Nisbett asked the court to be lenient and said he had a baby on the way and wished now to sort his life out.

He said he had had no good male role models in his life, and had been left to fend for himself as a child. Although he admitted having a long list of previous convictions, he said it had not been out of love of stealing, but necessity.

Nisbett said he would accept whatever punishment was sent his way, but did not believe a stint in prison would help him.

However, Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves said he would not accept any of the excuses or explanations, and said there were many children on the Island who did not have parents but who did not turn to crime.

On the other hand, he said, there were many children who did have the benefit of two parents and they did commit offences.

He said he had no option but to jail Nisbett. However, he said he could have sent him to Supreme Court, if he had wished, but was sparing him. He said his forthright mitigation had helped his case.

Mr. Greaves jailed Nisbett for 12 months on each of the three charges, to run concurrently.

A further three charges were withdrawn by the prosecution.