NT: Man, 22, faces year in prison for stealing box of biscuits

AAP General News (Australia)
12-21-1999
NT: Man, 22, faces year in prison for stealing box of biscuits

By Catharine Munro

DARWIN, Dec 21 AAP - A 22-year-old man could face the coming year in jail for allegedly
stealing a box of biscuits and some cordial from a shed on a remote island in the Northern
Territory.

Jamie Wurramara today pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate's Court at Groote Eylandt
to charges of unlawfully entering and stealing on Christmas Day last year, his lawyers
said.

His case was adjourned until February.

Mr Wurramara and two friends allegedly took the food from a shed on the Gemco mine,
where British-based resource giant Billiton plc mines manganese.

Under the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing regime, Mr Wurramara would be sentenced
with one year imprisonment.

In another case this year, a man was sentenced to 12 months jail for stealing a towel
valued at $15 off a clothes line.

The value of the goods Mr Wurramara was alleged to have stolen is $3.00, according
to his legal representatives, the North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (NAALAS).

By contrast, NAALAS said it would cost the Northern Territory government $53,633.10
to lock Mr Wurramara up for one year, should he be found guilty.

Mr Wurramara's two friends have already been convicted and sentenced, NAALAS director
Gordon Renouf said.

"One has been sentenced to jail for a year and one to 90 days," he said.

Groote Eylandt, located in the Gulf of Carpentaria, has one of the the highest rates
of incarceration of any Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory.

AAP cm/bdm

KEYWORD: MANDATORY

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