SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A 52-year-old Yellowknife man who shoplifted $100 worth of meat and a television set last August was sentenced to four months in jail on April 15 in territorial court.

"I hope you can get over this and deal with it," said Judge Garth Malakoe after sentencing Richard Bain.

The first offence occurred on Aug. 10, 2010, when a man living near the Wal-Mart store in Yellowknife saw a flat screen television set being tossed over the store's garden centre fence at 2:33 p.m. while he was getting his mail, said Crown prosecutor Angie Paquin.

Moments later, Bain pulled up in a green "beat up" car, put the television set in the backseat and drove away. The RCMP arrested Bain in his vehicle on 49 Street in front of the liquor store. The television, valued at $600, was not in the car and was never recovered.

Bain was caught on Wal-Mart's security camera removing the television from the electronics department and heading for the garden centre, she said.

Two weeks later, on Aug. 25, Bain walked into the Yellowknife Co-op store and placed $100 worth of meat in a shopping cart. Bain left the store with the shopping cart, and was once again caught on video surveillance committing the crime. The police were unable to recover the stolen meat. When asked, Bain told officers he took the meat because he was hungry, said Paquin.

She asked the court for a jail term in the range of two to four months, a probation order and that Bain pay restitution for the stolen items. Paquin described Bain's criminal record as "extensive," with 21 prior convictions.

Defence lawyer Abdul Khan asked the judge to take into consideration that his client has been unemployed for the last five years because of a disability.

He asked that Bain serve a jail term in the range of two to three months to be served on weekends so his client could continue to care for his spouse, who is battling cancer.

Malakoe said he was sympathetic to Bain's personal circumstances, but couldn't impose an intermittent sentence because he had no confidence Bain would show up based on his history of failures to abide by court orders. He described the thefts as "blatant" and showed Bain had no fear of getting caught as the crimes were committed in plain sight.

Besides the four-month jail term, Bain was also sentenced to one year of probation, which includes an order to stay 25 metres from the entrance of Wal-Mart and Co-op. He was also ordered to pay back both stores the value of the items stolen.

Bain's spouse attended the sentencing and wept as he was taken to jail.

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