Acting Justice Philip Storr gave a habitual thief credit during a sentencing this week for attempting to turn his life around, giving him a less than minimum sentence for two counts of breaking and entering.

Crown counsel Anthony Blackman told the court 24-year old Saje Ameill Nearon admitted stealing $2,139 of paint from the Waterproofing Supply store in Pembroke between January 4 and 6 this year, and breaking into the tennis stadium at Barnard Park to steal $276 worth of food and soft drinks between January 11 and 12 this year.

Nearon, who turned himself in to Police, was sent to Supreme Court for sentencing as he has a list of previous similar convictions dating back to 1996.

An admitted drug user, Nearon had previously tried drug treatment programmes however, said Mr. Blackman, for whatever reason they had been terminated. "There are no alternatives to incarceration for this defendant," he said, adding that there are drug treatment programmes available to those in custody.

Mr. Blackman asked for a sentence of two years incarceration with time already spent in custody to be taken into consideration.

Nearon's lawyer Edward Bailey, however, disagreed.

Noting he was not arguing against incarceration but against the length of the sentence, Mr. Bailey said Nearon should be given credit for the fact that he was aware of his drug problem and was willing to fight it. He pointed out that while on remand previously, Nearon had given up his remand privileges to be able to join a drug treatment programme within the prison, and that credit was deserved for this - especially in a man so young.

"Two years is excessive under the circumstances," he said, asking for a "short, sharp sentence" covering an adequate period of incarceration for Nearon to complete in-prison drug programmes.

"The problem with dealing with young men like you is that it seems to be almost inevitable when you get involved with drugs that you will end up short of money and end up stealing," Justice Storr told Nearon. "That changes life for everybody in Bermuda so people who are completely innocent ... have their lives affected by people like you.

"You know as well as I do that Bermuda today is not the place it used to be. People are no longer safe in their own homes ... The consequence is that my job is as much about protecting the public as helping you in the future ...

"The only future for you is to give up drugs. If you don't you will simply spend the rest of your life going into prison for longer and longer period until you end up killing yourself - it's inevitable ... Believe me, if you don't change your life you will end up with an early death after spending most of it in prison."

Two years imprisonment was the minimum Nearon should have expected to receive, Mr. Storr added, however, he was willing to give credit where credit was due. "You will serve a 15 month imprisonment," he said. "Now it's up to you, it's your choice, you choose whether you are going to be an effective, productive member of society by giving up drugs ... if you don't, you'll be a thief for the rest of your life."