oldschool4me 10+ year member
CarAudio.com Veteran
more like it depends on how much money the op pays for his attourney inturn how much of that goes into the judges and or prosecutors pocket. its all about money with courts man. me and a friend had a situation one time when we got pulled over by a cop. well long story short i had more and worse charges than my friend and i paid for attourney and he didnt get one. i didnt really get **** out of it and he got quite a bit out of it. told him to get one and he didnt listen. sad thing is for his charges it would only of been about 500 bux for an attourney. iirc he got 2 yrs probation, 500 in fine plus cc, 6 months suspended time, and 6 months or a year suspended license. i got suspended sentence ot 6 months and pay court costs which was like 65 bux, thats it. i even had a felony charge ccw as one of my 3 charges which they dropped to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct.It all depends on what can be proved that he stole. If its the little stuff its a slim chance. If the big stuff goes on the charge then you are absolutely right.
There are hundreds of variables though so it could go either way. Really depends on how the judge/prosecutor/defense attorney are feeling that day.
edit: to add i did have to pay 5k for attourney but saved me from doing a good bit of time and from having felony on my record. was worth it.