Boozed-up thief's memory lapse as bike goes for a Burton

A thief who stole a bike after a mammoth alcohol binge but was too drunk to recall where he had put it has been given a 12-month community order and will also have to undertake 60 hours’ unpaid work.

Steven McIntyre, 21, from Burton-on-Trent – appropriately, the historical centre of Britain’s brewing industry – told Burton Magistrates’ Court last week that he had stolen the £80 bicycle, which he found in a hallway, because “he couldn’t be bothered to walk to the train station.”

According to the Burton Mail, he then got on a train to Birmingham, where he left the bike at a location he couldn’t subsequently remember. The bicycle belonged to Scot Bond, who had left it in the hallway of a block of flats while staying with a friend overnight, and discovered that it was missing the next morning.

McIntyre was arrested after being identified as the culprit from CCTV images. John Peel, prosecuting, told the court: “Mr McIntyre was staying at his sister’s boyfriend’s flat. He had drunk 30 cans of lager, a bottle of vodka and Jack Daniel’s. He later left and saw the bike, there was no-one else around, and decided to take it.”

Mr Peel continued: “He couldn’t be bothered to walk to the train station to get to Birmingham, so took the bike on the train, but couldn’t remember where he left it and it has not been recovered.”

Defending barrister John Skinner claimed that the prosecution had exaggerated McIntyre’s alcohol intake, saying that it had been shared around a group, although he acknowledged that his client’s intoxication had been a contributing factor, saying, “I ask the magistrates for credit for his early guilty plea. He has shown remorse.”

Mr Peel added that McIntyre had “drunk a large quantity of alcohol making him act on impulse,” and said that although “he has a substantial record… after 2006 he had three years of no offences, but recently has gone off the rails and has kept to his orders when given them.”

According to a report requested by magistrates, the fact McIntyre had been drinking “gave him the confidence to steal the bike” and he understood the effects of his actions on the victim, who was now forced to get to work on foot.

Besides the community order and unpaid work, McIntyre was issued with a 12-month supervision order, and was also told to attend a thinking skills course. However, he was not made to compensate Mr Bond for the cost of the bicycle, since the court said there was no way of ascertaining its true value.