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Burglar Daniel Marks discovers prison is 'not very nice'

By Gloucestershire Echo  |  Posted: November 09, 2012

Gloucester Crown Court

Gloucester Crown Court

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BURGLAR Daniel Marks has managed to avoid a jail sentence after he discovered prison was "not very nice".

Judge Jamie Tabor QC told Marks that his crime was "abhorrent" but it would be better to equip him for the world outside than send him into custody.

"There is every reason for you to be sent to prison and I would do so but for the fact that between this offence and the present you have already seen what prison is like and you have decided it's not very nice," said the judge at Gloucester crown court.

"However, I do not want to send out the wrong message. Almost all people who commit dwelling burglaries are sent to prison."

The judge told Marks it was not simply the loss of property that people suffered, but the intrusion into their private space that they found very difficult to live with.

Marks, of Folly Lane, St Paul's, had pleaded guilty to the burglary of a house in Swindon Road, Cheltenham, in September 2011. The court heard he had been given a community order with 150 hours of unpaid work in February 2012 for breaking into an empty house in Cheltenham 13 months earlier.

Prosecutor Kannan Siva told the court that at about 10pm on September 22, a resident was alerted to a disturbance in his house and found a window in the basement had been smashed.

"The occupant of the room had left it secure and when he returned he found that all the drawers had been turned out and there was glass all over the place," he said.

"Nothing had been taken but he discovered a smear of blood on some of the broken glass, and DNA tests showed a very strong link to the defendant."

Defending, Ekwall Trwana told the judge that Marks had spent quite a long time in custody already, and that he needed further education and training, rather than jail.

"He is a young man who is now willing to change," he said.

Judge Tabor told Marks he knew what would happen if he committed any more burglaries, adding: "We have a better way of dealing with you that will still punish you, but will also equip you better for the world outside."

He sentenced Marks to six months' imprisonment suspended for two years and said that if he committed another burglary he would start with a six month sentence, plus the sentence for the new offence.

He also imposed a three month electronically tagged curfew from 8pm to 6am.

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  • TheNub  |  November 11 2012, 9:30AM

    lets hope judge tabor has his mansion robbed and they trash the place .who is in charge of the judges surely someone has to oversee them and see what poor sentences are being dished out.

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  • MrGarnet  |  November 10 2012, 5:25PM

    Must be no "safaris" left to go on? Same Judge ?

    |   3
  • 2ladybugs  |  November 10 2012, 4:07PM

    @Raccoon, Sarcasm on my part.

    |   1
  • Raccoon  |  November 10 2012, 3:42PM

    Er, the judge isn't nameless. It was Tabor.

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  • 2ladybugs  |  November 10 2012, 10:55AM

    So let us get this right. You can commit a crime in Gloucester, the police apprehend you and we the taxpayers pay for this criminal to be taken to court. The very nice judge, who shall remain nameless, then takes pity on you because you don't think that prison is to your liking. The poor little criminal is now given a suspended sentence and ordered to do some work. Just out of curiosity, was this "i'm going to change now and be a good boy" in any kind of paid employment or was he on the dole? UNBELIEVABLE . If he though jail was "not very nice" why did he then go on to commit another crime????

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  • Douglasknows  |  November 10 2012, 10:53AM

    So if he, Marks, doesn't change Mr Trwana will you hang up your wig, gowns or what-ever you wear because you are a poor judge of people that you are paid to defend?

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  • MrGarnet  |  November 10 2012, 10:06AM

    Why not give the pile of **** a medal!

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  • FreeRadical1  |  November 09 2012, 4:30PM

    Next he'll be discovering that the Pope is Catholic and realising what bears do in the woods...

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  • jayne80  |  November 09 2012, 10:54AM

    Are you kidding me? i wont send you to prison because you saw its not very nice ***????? its ok for people to destroy other peoples lives by robbing their homes the one place your meant to b safe coz they wont get prison coz its not nice!!!! what a joke our justice system is!!!! lock him up prisons not meant to be nice!!!!

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