A man who said he was forced to steal a cell phone and sell it in order to get money because he was hungry and without a job was yesterday fined $20, 000 by Magistrate Faith Mc Gusty when the matter was heard in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
In his admission to stealing the phone, the unrepresented man, Devrox Jones, appealed for leniency, telling the court “I didn’t mean to do what I did. I am a first time offender. I was hungry and looking for a job … It was a mistake.”
Jones was arrested by members of the public who he said had beaten him.
The phone was later recovered.
Prosecutor Deniro Jones said that the man had stolen the Alcatel cell phone valued $8,000 from Kamini Sugrim, after he entered the Zan Department Trading Co. on July 6, on the pretext that he was in search of a job and needed something to eat.
It was after Sugrim left her phone in a bid to get something for the defendant to eat that he grabbed it and ran, Jones continued.
However, a seemingly surprised Gomes said he had no knowledge that she was getting something for him to eat.
“I am asking the court to see with me. I have never done something like this before,” he pleaded.
The magistrate, before announcing that Gomes was fined $20, 000 or three months imprisonment in the alternative, told the defendant that she understood that he was hungry but that was no excuse for his actions.
