A Meadow Bank woman accused of a $278,000 break-in was yesterday granted bail in the sum of $60,000 when she appeared before acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
The allegation is that on October 12, Neisha Benny broke and entered the storeroom of Colin Young and stole a quantity of beverages valued $278,000, property of the said Colin Young.
The mother of three of 10 Meadow Bank, East Bank Demerara, pleaded not guilty to the charge of break and enter and larceny when it was read to her by the acting chief magistrate.
Prosecutor Lionel Harvey told the court that on the day in question, the virtual complainant secured his property by means provided and left.
Based on information received sometime after, Harvey said, the complainant returned to his premises and found his bond broken into and a quantity of beverages missing. The prosecutor said that the police were later summoned to the scene and based on investigations conducted the items were later found at the defendant’s property.
Attorney-at-law Trenton Lake who represented the accused told the court, however, that while he did not wish to get into the details of the matter at this point he wanted the court to note a number of inconsistencies on the part of the law enforcers in this pretrial stage of the case.
According to the lawyer, after speaking with a senior police official close to the case, he was told that the beverages found at the defendant’s home were different from that missing from the complainant’s storage bond. Lake added too that when his client was initially arrested, she was told that she would be charged with the offence of receiving stolen articles. He later expressed shock at the break-and-enter and larceny charge on which she was eventually arraigned.
The lawyer in his bail application told the court that his client had been placed on $10,000 station bail and has been cooperating with the police in their investigations. He said too that she has no antecedents, has a fixed address and poses no risk of flight.
The prosecution had no objection to the bail application made by the attorney.
The woman was later granted her pretrial liberty in the sum of $60,000, and ordered to return to court on December 1.
