(Trinidad Express) A Jamaican national who went mining for gold in Guyana and then came to this country to sell it to jewellery stores in Port of Spain, only to later break into the business places and steal the jewellery claiming he was underpaid for his “hard work” has been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.
But he will only serve just a few more months behind bars before being released since he has already been in prison for more than three years.
The sentence was imposed on 35-year-old Peter Young, a graphic artiste, by Magistrate Nizam Khan at the Port of Spain Court yesterday, when Young opted to plead guilty to the offences that took place at three stores in downtown Port of Spain in 2015.
Since being charged late that same year, Young has been in prison having been denied bail.
After entering the guilty pleas, Young, who was unrepresented, explained to the magistrate that he had gone to Demerara, Guyana, and mined for gold for more than two years. At the end of that period, he had more than 11 pounds of the precious metal which he then attempted to ship to the United States. But after going to FedEx to export the gold, he was told he could not lawfully do so, since he needed a “special licence” to mine for gold in Guyana.
He then came to this country and attempted to sell the gold, which he estimated to be valued at TT$1.9 million, to the stores.
Young claimed that the owners of those stores, took the gold and paid him just a fraction of what it was worth. He was not provided with any receipt, he claimed.
The reason for this he said, was because the owners of the stores said they needed to verify that it was in fact pure gold.
Young claimed that after some time of not receiving the remainder of his money, he went to the Belmont Police Station to lodge a report but officers there informed him there was nothing they could do in the absence of any sales receipt.
“This made me frustrated and angry. I was conned and robbed,” he said.
And this was what led him into breaking into the stores on various dates in 2015, and stealing a grand total of $909,000 worth of gold jewellery.
He was arrested several days after the committing the last offence by officers of the Port of Spain Criminal Investigations Department (CID). However, the jewellery was never recovered.
Young was previously sentenced by a San Fernando magistrate for house-breaking and larceny to five years’ imprisonment. But that sentence has since been appealed, he told the court.
In his mitigation plea, he told the magistrate that while in prison he underwent anger management classes as well as biblical studies for which he obtained two certificates.
Those certificates were presented to the court during the hearing.
In passing sentence, Magistrate Khan said Young had to be commended for the improvement he had made in his life behind bars, but the offences for which he was before the court was too prevalent in society.
He said individuals should feel free walking the streets and operate their businesses without the fear of being robbed.
For each of the offences, Young was sentenced to four years imprisonment. All of the sentences are to run together, meaning he will only serve four years, minus the time he had already been in prison.
