Late-night restaurant raider faces deportation

Saturday 03 November 2018

A man who illegally entered an Italian restaurant at night, smashed the till and stole around £450 in cash has been sentenced to jail-time and now faces deportation from the island.

Igor Emanuel Alves Frescata (34) appeared in the Royal Court for sentencing after he illegally entered ‘Little Italy’ in Kensington Place via an open window and stole between £450-£500 in cash from the till which he smashed open and then threw away in one of the restaurant’s bins.

The Court heard that the restaurant was broken into overnight in February of this year and it was found that the intruder entered via a small mesh window which was left open to allow ventilation. 

Despite Frescata’s fingerprints being found around the inside of the window frame and inside the mechanism of the smashed till, he has continued to deny his involvement in the incident.

Pictured: The Royal Court heard that Igor Emanuel Alves Frescata was found to have illegally entered the Italian restaurant to steal cash from the till.

The Court heard that during interview, Frescata told Police “I’ve always gone in through the doors, never in through the windows”, at which point he had not been told that there was evidence to suggest the intruder had entered via the window.

Notwithstanding Frescata maintaining his innocence, he was found guilty of illegally entering the restaurant and stealing £700 cash till and its cash contents.

This guilty verdict put Frescata in breach of two Royal Court orders as a result of two previous convictions – one count of receiving stolen property and two counts of possessing small amounts of cannabis. 

As a Madeiran national, Frescata’s offending placed him at risk of deportation from Jersey. 

For these offences, Frescata was sentenced to 120 hours of community service, a 12 month probation order and was told that the Court had come “very close” to recommending deportation, but had given him “the benefit of the doubt”. 

The Court also heard that the break-in took place on 16 February – just under a month after he was sentenced on these previous offences.

Making his case for a prison sentence and a recommendation for deportation, Crown Advocate Richard Pedley said: “The defendant was given the opportunity to live and work in the island and to avoid any recommendation for deportation. He was told repeatedly that ‘living in Jersey is a privilege and not a right’… He was given a chance and he’s thrown that [away].”

Pictured: The Madeiran national was sentenced in the Royal Court this week.

Defence Advocate Luke Sette tried to persuade the Court to impose a community service order and told of Frescata’s familial ties to the island to argue against his client’s deportation. Advocate Sette said that “Mr Frescata knows that the Court gave him one chance already” but he was asking for “an absolutely final chance to be the law abiding citizen he has been for the majority of his life.”

Having retired to consider both sides of the case, Royal Court Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, sitting with Jurats Fisher and Ronge handed down a sentence of 18 months for the break-in and theft plus two months extra for breaching his community service and probation orders.

Handing down this sentence, the Commissioner said: “There is little, if any mitigation available to the defendant… [he] committed this offence a month after being sentenced for previous offences, causing a costly trial in the face of compelling forensic evidence.” He also described Frescata as being “still in denial” about his guilt.

The Court also made a recommendation for Frescata’s deportation back to Madeira.