An 18-year-old student of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College is on curfew and has been warned that her participation in the upcoming carnival activities during curfew have been curtailed.
The Kingstown Magistrate Court imposed the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on Zoneh Seymour earlier this week when she pleaded guilty to a charge of theft.
“Let the house where you live sign up [for pay-per-view] for the shows if you want to see,” said Magistrate Rechanne Browne as she warned Seymour that she was banned from nightly activities, especially carnival activities, while her curfew is in effect.
The magistrate warned the college student, a resident of Enhams, that if she is found on the streets during the curfew she would be brought back to court and she would “have no difficulty” remanding her to prison.
Seymour was arrested and charged for stealing EC$1,700 from the husband of a lady who took her in after her father died.
According to police, Herbert George of Upper Cane Hall returned home with a certain amount of money in his pocket on May 22, and hung up his pants leaving the money in his pocket. On May 25, he took the pants and searched to find $1,700 missing. A report was made to police and Seymour admitted stealing the cash. She handed over a number of items, including a Blackberry Torch cellphone, three pairs of shoes and a hair relaxer, which she said she bought with the money.
The service of a caseworker from the Social Services Division has been employed to look into Seymour’s circumstances and a report is expected to be forwarded to the court by Aug. 4.
The caseworker has said that it would take about six weeks to investigate and complete the report because of the number of matters the division had, and the limited number of caseworkers.
Seymour was granted $500 bail in her own recognisance.
Meanwhile, George has indicated that he did not wish any criminal sanctions be placed on Seymour because he did not want to see her record messed up, since this could hinder her development. He said he was willing to give her time to repay the money.
He told the court that he had given her two weeks before to return the cash but she was unable to do so. He said that a promise was made that she and friends would repay.
Magistrate Browne-Matthias said she had a concern because the college student was not employed. She hinted that to be asking her to repay the money at this time was as if she was being asked to do that which could only lead her into trouble.
Seymour is scheduled to reappear in court on Aug. 4.
The young lady (Zoneh Seymour) was taught a valuable lesson which should send a strong message across the board to all young students. The fact that she is attending school and have no form of income means that she is unable to pay back that which she owed. A simple suggestion is to allow her to do some community service on weekend that can pay her a minimum wage. Great job in keeping us abreast with the current news.