A 41-year-old man was yesterday fined $30,000 or 12 months imprisonment by Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson for stealing a cell phone.

Junior Marks of 243 East Ruimveldt Housing Scheme pleaded guilty with explanation to stealing one Motorola cell phone valued $17,500 from Hemawati Singh on January 10 in Georgetown.

The unrepresented defendant told the court that he was coming from the Salvation Army’s ‘Wheels on Meals’ bus when he saw the phone on a bench. He said he picked it up and persons raised an alarm.

He said it was then that Singh said it was her phone. He said he was going to give her back the phone but persons started chasing him so he ran.

However, according to Singh, this was not the case. She said she was at the Plaisance bus park and her phone was in her right hand when the defendant walked up behind her and squeezed her hand while demanding her phone.

Police Prosecutor Inspector Stephen Telford told the court that after Marks had taken Singh’s phone an alarm was raised and persons gave chase. Police who were on patrol apprehended the man.

At first the magistrate had changed Mark’s plea to not guilty but after he insisted that he wanted the matter to end and Singh told the court that she just wanted her phone back, the magistrate then entered a guilty plea for Marks and explained that the charge carried a $60,000 fine or 18 months.

Marks told the court that he did not have that much money and his fine was reduced to half.