COURT ROUND-UP: Lemon thief fined, man escapes being remanded for psychiatric evaluation

0
279
- Advertisement -

By Elesha George

[email protected]

A 48-year-old mechanic has been ordered to pay the court hundreds of dollars after he was convicted of praedial larceny.

When John Anthony stood before Acting Chief Magistrate Dexter Wason on Monday, he pleaded guilty to stealing EC$72 worth of lemons from the property of a farmer in Liberta.

According to the court, on March 30, Eustace Anthony informed officers at the Liberta Police Station that someone had illegally entered his farm.

Moments later, the accused was spotted on the Liberta main road where police officers discovered the bucket of lemons in his vehicle.

The man who lives in Clare Hall was fined $500 and was ordered to immediately return the lemons which had been in the possession of the police. In default of payment, he will spend six days in prison.

The farmer also informed the court of a previous incident of praedial larceny where he lost 30 goats. Frustrated, he pleaded with the magistrate to warn Anthony who was unknown to the court before this incident.

In another matter, a mother who was concerned for the mental health of her 23-year-old son shared with the court that for about five years he had been “behaving irrationally”.

Yohannan Alexis had been remanded for unlawfully entering a store on Church Street.

The court heard that the Solid Waste worker became “obsessed” with an employee who worked at the establishment and had been warned several times not to enter the business.

However, on March 30, he walked into the store, claiming that on the advice of an officer it was public property. He told the court that he believed since the woman no longer worked there, he would have been able to enter.

Alexis ultimately pleaded guilty to the unlawful entry charge and was placed on peace bond for one year, meaning that during that year he has to display good behaviour and keep the peace.

In default, he would be sentenced to six months in prison.

But before his sentencing, his mother addressed the court and told Magistrate Wason that she had been trying to get her son to undergo a medical evaluation because he had been “acting funny”.

She explained to the court that at one time her son lived on the street and had been left “heartbroken” by a former girlfriend and seemed unable to cope.

The magistrate initially intended to hold the 23-year-old on remand for a short time, but after hearing Alexis speak, he handed down a lesser sentence and advised the young man to seek counselling with his mother.

- Advertisement -