FACED with the stress associated with his latest theft of 11 cars, one of which belonged to a police officer, confessed car thief Christopher Reid has vowed to turn over a new leaf.

“I am tired of feeling like there’s a noose around my neck, getting tighter and tighter. I am tired of victimising and hurting innocent people,” Reid read from a prepared statement as he stood before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

” I am so very sorry … I hope something good can come out of all this,” he said as his hands trembled slightly. “I will never be seen in this courtroom again. I promise God, and I promise your honour that I will live a law-abiding life,” he told the court.

Reid, 29, was arrested and charged on June 7 after he stole a motorcar belonging to Montego Bay CIB Detective Constable Lenroy Arnett and then sold it to his co-accused, Oneil Pinnock of Content in Ocho Rios.

On June 9, Reid took members of the Montego Bay CIB to the home of 10 other persons where, he said, he had also stolen cars.

He was subsequently slapped with 11 counts of motor vehicle theft, and allegedly told the police that on each occasion, he had sold the cars to Pinnock. Pinnock was later charged with 11 counts of receiving stolen motor vehicles.

But Reid’s newfound religion, which was greeted with some scepticism, will have to wait.

Following his plea for mercy, Judge Paulette Williams matter-of-factly asked him whether he had read that same letter to the court in Falmouth, when he had appeared there on similar charges.

He said no, but it was all downhill from there.

The judge credited him for not having wasted the court’s time, by pleading guilty from the outset of the case, and also for his willingness to co-operate with the police. However, it was brought to the fore that Reid had two previous convictions, including the theft of a motorcar. On those occasions however, he had only received suspended sentences.

He was not so lucky this time around.

Judge Williams informed him that he would have to turn his life over to God after he had served two years imprisonment at hard labour.

In response, Reid asked only that he not be sent to the St Catherine Correctional facility as his life had been threatened.

His co-accused, Pinnock, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and is set to reappear in court later this month.