By Carlena Knight
A Bathlodge resident will spend one year in jail after he was found guilty of larceny on Friday at the St. John’s Magistrate Court.
Seth Clarke pleaded guilty to the offence as he stood in front of Chief Magistrate Joanne Walsh.
The incident took place at about 6:30 am on September 7 2021 while the victim was walking to her workplace in Radio Range.
While walking through the playing field, the accused approached her from behind, grabbed her bag from her shoulder and ran. The complainant screamed for help and a good Samaritan saw the accused running and chased him.
The accused disappeared in some bushes and the man continued to search the area until he found him.
With the help of an officer, he was apprehended and taken into custody.
Clarke was subsequently charged for stealing the bag and its contents — a $100 bag, a $150 cellular phone and $1000 cash.
The 46-year-old repeat offender explained that it was on account of his hunger that he snatched the bag.
“I worked for a person and he didn’t want to pay me, so I pulled the bag. I didn’t even have time to search the bag. Meh hungry, and me a try get sumn for nyam,” he said.
Clarke in fact, begged Walsh for leniency in her ruling as he has been out of trouble for nearly two years.
“I know what I did was wrong, so I am to get punished. I’m not going to do it again,” Clarke added.
But Walsh replied: “I can’t have you on the street, and every time you get hungry, you attack somebody.”
She gave him a year because his record is “disgusting.”