A forgiving boss has offered a job to a convicted criminal – who burgled HIS business.
The prisoner in his 20s, who has not been named, has been given a second chance by managing director Charles Moyle, 48, who runs an events company.
The offender was jailed in 2006 for a difference crime, but while in prison he admitted to stealing IT equipment from Mr Moyle’s Worcester-based company Grass Roots Live.
Despite the burglar’s chequered past, Mr Moyles reached out to him and offered him a job as part of an initiative being run by West Mercia Police to help rehabilitate ex-offenders.
As long as the offender keeps out of trouble for the remainder of his sentence, the job offer at the Worcester-based firm will be there when he comes out later this year.
Mr Moyle, from Tenbury Wells, Worcs., said: “We met the offender in prison and it became very clear to us that actually there was a big gap at the end of the process he was going through.
“It just occurred to me that we had an obligation at some point to give someone a chance and give someone an opportunity.
“I thought he was an intelligent guy.
“I thought he actually, ironically, had a lot of integrity but I think he hasn’t had a tremendous mentor or a sponsor in his life who could guide him down the right way.
“It is a risk I know, but it is a better way than him re-offending. He feels nobody cares. It’s worth a chance, it’s worth a try.
“If he is the man I think he is then he will grab it with both hands and make a difference.”
The unnamed prisoner wrote a letter to thank Mr Moyle for his generosity. It read: “I am serious about turning my life around.
“I know I have got to earn your trust and I know there will be a lot of people who think you are mad for taking a risk on me but I will prove them wrong.
“I know I made a lot of mistakes in the past but I am not going to be making any more.
“I just want to get out and work hard and do my family proud.
“I do not want to waste my life going in and out of jail when there is so much more I could be doing.
“Again, I would like to say sorry that I stole from you.
“Obviously there is a lot of stuff in my past that I regret doing and if I could go back and change it I would, but all I can do is change my future and not make the same mistakes.
Superintendent Mark Travis from West Mercia Police said it was a very welcome outcome from a very successful scheme.
He said: “I think it is about achieving a tangible outcome.
“It is about bringing the offender, the person who has committed the crime, together with the victim of the crime, so that the victim can understand why the crime has taken place and understand how the offender feels about that.
“Do they feel guilty, do they feel sorry? It is an opportunity for the victim to tell the offender how it impacted on them, how it affected their family or how it affected their business.
“We are trying to stop the cycle of offending here.”