A serial offender who stole cash, jewellery and shoes from a Pembroke property was sentenced to to three years behind bars.

Neville Woods, 55, admitted breaking into a home on Court Street and stealing the items, valued at about $16,400, when he appeared in Magistrates’ Court in April.

Woods has been in custody since then and reappeared in court yesterday for sentencing.

Prosecutor Matthew Frick highlighted Woods’s numerous previous convictions, which dated back to 1982, during the appearance and suggested a sentence of five years behind bars.

Woods was previously sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2022 and 4½ years behind bars in 2013.

Jonathan White, Woods’s lawyer, highlighted his client’s early guilty plea and social inquiry report, which he said showed a “willingness and desire to change”.

He requested that Woods spend two years behind bars for the offence.

Woods asked magistrate Maria Sofianos for leniency before being sentenced and told her he wished he had never used crack-cocaine.

Ms Sofianos said Woods was solely to blame for the offence and pointed out that the stolen items were not returned to the complainant, who she said experienced “emotional harm” from the incident.

She ordered that time already spent in custody be taken into account in Woods’s three-year sentence.

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