Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton on Thursday sentenced a repeat offender to 18 months imprisonment, after he admitted to stealing a woman’s phone.
The Georgetown Magistrates’ Court heard that Julian Harlequin, on May 29, at Georgetown, stole the phone from the person of Wanie Griffith.
Harlequin pleaded guilty to the charge of larceny from the person. He told the court that he and the “girl had a lil thing going on which is why I buy this phone for she. A man call she and she ain’t want tell me is who so I tek de phone. I ain’t snatch no phone.”
But Police Prosecutor Simone Payne said Griffith was at Cornhill Street, near the route 42 minibus park when Harlequin approached her and snatched her cellular phone. She raised an alarm and he was arrested by police officers, who found the phone in his pants pocket after a search.
Griffith was absent from the court but the Magistrate read her statement, which described Harlequin, the clothing he wore and accused him of snatching her phone. As it was being read, the man appeared mortified. Before judgment was handed down, he said that he had served a six-month prison term for a similar offence in 2006. He added that prior to that conviction, he had been charged with another matter.
In handing down judgment, the magistrate told Harlequin that since he did not learn his lesson from his previous conviction, he would have to bear an 18-month jail sentence.
