Two middle-aged men appeared before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court this morning, charged with stealing items from Massy Stores over the past few days.
Noel MacDonald Carter, 62, of Lot 2 Forde’s Road, Clapham, St Michael, pleaded guilty to stealing two bottles of D69 valued at $10.20, as well as a box of Pears soap, sometime between November 18 and 19.
Sergeant Martin Rock told the court that Carter is a taxi-driver who operates from the Massy property at Worthing. On November 18, a bottle of D69 was found empty on the shelf in the supermarket. The following day, the same thing happened.
The general manager was told and he investigated. Those investigations led to Carter and the police were called. They too investigated and found out that the taxi-driver drank the contents and replaced the empty bottles on the shelf. On November 19, Carter also took the soap after consuming the drink.
The first-time offender went before Magistrate Douglas Frederick today. When he was asked what he had to say, Carter apologized “to the court, the Massy Store, and all my friends and family”.
Appearing amicus curiae, attorney-at-law Wilfred Abrahams asked the court to speak. He said that he did not know Carter but had listened to the facts.
“I am not excusing what he did but things are very difficult right now for people,” he said. He also said that being a taxi-driver, having a conviction could affect whether Carter’s license would be renewed on the next occasion or not.
“This is a case that begs for the leniency of the court,” Abrahams remarked, as he asked Magistrate Frederick to “allow a man who had evaded the courts for 62 years to leave without a conviction”.
“I don’t know him but I feel for him and I’m glad his record is clean,” the lawyer pointed out.
Magistrate Frederick then asked Carter why he had done it.
“I can’t explain it,” he replied.
“Are things that difficult for you?” Frederick enquired.
“Sometimes,” the man said.
Carter was ordered to pay $300 in costs forthwith, with an alternative of seven days in prison. The money was paid and no conviction was recorded against him.
“Don’t let this happen to you again,” the magistrate warned.
Immediately following the conclusion of Carter’s case, another middle-aged man also pleaded guilty to theft from the same supermarket.
However, Dennis David Alexander, a 58 year old mechanic of Rendezvous Road, Christ Church, offered an explanation for stealing a $3.59 bread pudding on November 21.
He told Magistrate Frederick that he took up the item and went to the drinks section of the supermarket looking at drinks because his birthday is coming up soon. He said during that time, he put his cellular phone into his pocket and must have put in the small bread-pudding at the same time.
Alexander went on to explain that it was only after security came to him and asked what he had in his pocket, that he realized that he had put the item in there.
The magistrate reprimanded and discharged Alexander.