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The long arm of the law has finally caught up with an habitual thief who committed her first offence 40-years ago in 1981 while still a teenager.
The Pretoria North Regional Court has sentenced 57-year-old Desiree Williams to 10-years imprisonment for theft for stealing two items of leggings from a Cotton-on retail store in Montana.
The NPA reports that on the 25th of September this year, Williams had tried on two pairs of leggings in the fitting room and then put them in her bag with the intention of leaving the store without paying for them.
She was stopped by the store manager on her way out and taken to the back office where the items worth R798.40 were found in her possession.
Williams was arrested and remained in custody until her conviction in October and sentence last week.
Prosecutor Rabia Ebrahim told the court that it was in the interest of society to impose a harsh sentence as Williams continued to commit the same offence since as far back as 1981 and that no sentence had rehabilitated or deterred her.
Williams has 34 previous convictions for theft, 29 of those are older than 10 years while 5 are between 2011 and 2020 and she is still awaiting trial for 31 pending cases.
The court sentenced Williams to 10-years direct imprisonment, agreeing with Ebrahim that if it gave her a lenient sentence, there was every chance she would commit the same offence again.
