'Canal Boy' gets five years

THE thief who was controversially sent on a canal holiday as a teenager in a bid to steer him away from crime has been jailed for five years.

Known as Canal Boy after being given the 'punishment' of the cruise at public expense by Care Afloat, to stop him offending, it has proved a complete failure, Alan Tilbury reports.

Storm of protests

The extended—and expensive—canal holiday, which caused a storm of protest, failed to cure him of his criminal ways and he has since been a regular in the dock, and this week he was sentenced to five years in jail for a string of burglaries in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury.

But at Gloucester Crown Court this week it was heard that the jaunt had been a total failure as Bowen, now 28, had embarked on a life of crime and drugs and become an 'habitual burglar'.

He was sentenced by the judge to five years in prison.