Student charged with stealing a fork

Paul Lampathakis From: The Sunday Times May 28, 2011 4

A YOUNG State Emergency Service volunteer has been charged with stealing and could have a criminal record for taking a $1 fork from a restaurant table as a prank.
Police have decided to charge 19-year-old advertising student Jacob Bonser with stealing, after he grabbed a fork from a table outside a Northbridge restaurant to poke a friend while enjoying a Saturday night out in October last year.

Mr Bonser, an SES volunteer and former soldier, who has no criminal record, said he put the utensil down on the table about "three seconds" after picking it up when police approached him.

He said police initially gave him a move-on order and a "talking to" which he thought was "fair enough".

But he received a summons for a stealing charge for a fork valued by police at "$1.00" in their statement of material facts.

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.Mr Bonser's father, Gary, said a conviction would wreck his son's future and waste thousands of taxpayers' dollars "just for a $1 fork".

"We were a bit tipsy but I wasn't drunk, and I picked up the fork for just a muck around with my friends. I was going to jab a friend with it," Mr Bonser said this week, ahead of a July 6 court appearance.

"There was no intention to steal it. About three seconds later an officer grabbed me by the collar. I just heard the words, 'You're under arrest'."

Mr Bonser said he was going to drop the fork back on the table after poking his friend.

But he said he was remorseful about the incident and the inconvenience he had caused to police and the restaurant.

Mr Bonser's lawyer, John Hammond, said another lawyer wrote to the officer to have the matter dropped, but the officer wrote back saying it was a matter of "principle".

"But there should be a principle of common sense and it's clearly not common sense to prosecute a young person with an excellent record for a $1 fork, when it will cost more than that to turn the light bulb on in the court," Mr Hammond said.

A spokeswoman for Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said the case had been brought to the attention of Assistant Commissioner (Metro) Gary Budge, "who has initiated a review of the circumstances of the charge to determine whether it is in the public interest to proceed".