Janice Samuel, a woman who allegedly stole close to $5,000 from her employer in February 2016, was yesterday ordered to pay back the money immediately, which she did in order to avoid being jailed for six months.
She was also sentenced to two years in prison but the sentence has been suspended with a condition that she must be of good behaviour during that time.
High Court Justice Iain Morley noted that Samuel breached her employer’s trust after working at Connies Comfort Suites for just two weeks when she stole the money and used it for her personal gain, which included down payments on purchases of appliances and furnishings, and a rented apartment.
Justice Morley said it was obvious that the convict needs “help” because something must be wrong with her. According to the judge, it would be very hard for Samuel to stay out of prison in the future if she is to face other matters of a similar nature.
Samuel was scheduled to be sentenced since July 25th, but it was pushed back by a week due to the court’s heavy schedule.
Earlier this month, and some three years after being charged, the media personality admitted to stealing several thousand dollars from her former boss.
She threw in the towel in the High Court after Shirmique Jeffers, managing operator of Connies Comfort Suites, testified that she had hired Samuel as a consultant at the apartment rental business for just two weeks when she stole the money between February 1st and February 6th, 2016.
Samuel was responsible for administrative work and collecting rent from tenants for which she prepared receipts. The convict was required to place any cash she collected in a drop box, but failed to do so.
The evidence was that she deliberately recorded inaccurate amounts of what was received, and the employer discovered this when she compared what was documented in Samuel’s handwriting with the carbon copies of the receipts in the receipt books, which were also in Samuel’s handwriting.
After going back and forth with Samuel over the missing money, Jeffers reported the matter to the police who discovered she had made down payments of several thousand dollars on an apartment, a new stove, a queen size bed frame and a mattress, curtains and other items. The arrangement was for her to pay monthly instalments on the furnishings. Additionally, the same week of the theft, she rented a car for which she paid $850 for eight days.
When confronted about everything, she said the monies used to make those payments were from her personal funds and she had not stolen anything from her boss.
She blamed the system at the workplace, saying the cash was misplaced because, according to her, there were no fixed procedures as to how cash should be dealt with in the office and she used her own initiative to deal with it.