In 1999, an unemployed homeless man was sentenced to 12 months in jail for the theft of a bath towel valued at $15. The court record states that the man took the towel from the backyard of a Darwin suburban house "to use for a blanket" because he was cold. This was his third property offence since the introduction of mandatory sentencing and he was therefore given an automatic term of 12 months imprisonment.

The man had a history of 13 other property offences, mostly for the theft of food and similar items for his personal survival. He saw no alternative to entering a plea of guilty as he realised "there was no choice for him but to do his time".

His lawyer, Kirsty Gowans, said that the penalty far outweighed the minor nature of the offence. "We have not come very far from transporting people for stealing a loaf of bread", she said.

North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, policy manager John Sheldon believes that if it were not for mandatory sentencing, the man would have been fined or released on a bond.

A 27-year-old Darwin university student was jailed for 14 days when found guilty of damaging an electronic till in a row over a hot dog at a takeaway shop.

A 17-year-old school student convicted of theft of yo-yos and computer games from a Darwin toy store, and criminal damage, was sentenced to 14 days jail, after pleading guilty. The youth had no previous criminal convictions, had handed himself into police and was fully cooperative with police.

In Darwin, two 17-year-old women with no previous criminal convictions were each sentenced to 14 days imprisonment after being convicted of theft of clothes from other girls who were staying in the same room.

At the Aboriginal community of Port Keats, a number of young people joy riding on the back of a trailer attached to a tractor which was stolen, and which was being driven around the community by the offender, were charged with unlawful use of a vehicle. Those older than 17,
and those who were 15 and 16 with a previous conviction, were convicted and sentenced under the mandatory sentencing provisions.

An 18-year-old Katherine man was sentenced to 14 days jail for stealing a $2.50 lighter. He surrendered to police after his father had urged him to "come clean".