If I remember correctly, the victim stated that they were in the process of refurbishing the house and they were able to repair the damage with materials and tools that they had on hand.notorial dissent wrote:So this, the damage charge, was basically a misdemeanor then? I would have thought the damage would have been sufficient to really nail him, damaging a roof and breaking in through it can't have been cheap to fix. I can't remmeber what our threshold is here, but it isn't all that high.
I believe that the police or CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) were very careful in their choice of offence to charge Tom with. Knowing that he wanted to be charged with an offence that would hinge on the ownership of the house and that he wanted a jury trial, they chose an offence which would not give him any satisfaction. The chance of a successful prosecution was - possibly - reduced as a result, but my guess is that the outcome that they wanted was the court order banning Tom from returning to the house, which they got. It's worth noting that the court order could also have accompanied a not guilty verdict.
We don't have quite the same distinction of misdemeanours and felonies, but the sentence of (again, if I remember correctly) a conditional discharge effectively amounted to "Go away and don't be so silly again". The only thing lower than that is an absolute discharge which leaves off the "... and don't be so silly again" part.