Man claims set up after copping to break and enter

Although he later claimed he was set up, Poorandeo Ramdeo, 51, was yesterday fined $10,000 after he admitted to a charge of break and enter and larceny.

Ramdeo, of 38 Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara, pleaded guilty to the charge at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, where Magistrate Ann McLennan imposed the fine.

It was alleged that on November 23, at Camp-bellville, Georgetown, he broke and entered the storeroom of Joy Thomas and stole a 50 lb gas cylinder, valued $50,000.

According to Prosecutor Deniro Jones, after Thomas was alerted to the theft by her nephew, she saw Ramdeo with the gas cylinder in his hand.

Poorandeo Ramdeo
Poorandeo Ramdeo

But Ramdeo told the court he was passing on the road and saw a boy who gave him $200 and told him to buy a bottle of gas for him. “When I pick up the bottle the boy walk away and then I see a red man and he ask me where I going with the bottle. And I tell him I going and buy gas,” he added.

Ramdeo added that after the man who hired him escaped when he saw the police coming, he was the only one left, resulting in his arrest.

“I begging you, my worship, me didn’t do nothing wrong. I does deh all over the place walking about,” Ramdeo pleaded with the court.

When asked why he pleaded guilty to the charge after his explanation, Ramdeo told the court he did so because the gas bottle was right next to him.

After taking into consideration the facts presented to the court, the magistrate fined Ramdeo $10,000 or 14 days imprisonment.