April 2009 | Ian J. Kahn

Book thief's sentence halved...

The Iranian/Brit who stole leaves from an untold number of books at the British Library and the Bodleian Library has had his sentence cut in halfby the Appellate Court...and his deportation order was reversed.
Mr Justice Blake, giving the court's judgement, said: "This was not a case of someone stealing to improve his library then preventing scholars from accessing those books in the future. All the books have been recovered and so have the pages.
Apparently, the court was swayed by his "charitable work". Sad commentary...good thing he did not steal beer from the market, the penalty would undoubtedly be harsher.
For other elements of this tale, please see this and that.