A prosecutor has praised farmers and villagers in Rabacca for tying the hands and feet of a man caught stealing vegetables from a farm.
“If it wasn’t for the vigilant farmers who were nearby to restrain him until the police came, he could have got away,” prosecutor, Corporal of Police Delando Charles told the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Charles was addressing a matter in which Oran Johnson, 34, of Georgetown, pleaded guilty to a charge that on Sept. 28, at Rabacca, he stole flavour and sweet peppers, valued EC$200 and tomatoes valued at EC$50, the property of Kenroy Johnson, of Chilli, Georgetown.
The prosecutor told the court that the VC, a retired principal, owns a plot of land at Rabacca Mountain above the Orange Hill Settlement, where he has several short crops and fruit trees.
On Sept. 28, at 7:30 a.m., Johnson went to his field and harvested tomatoes and cucumbers.
He also fertilised the land leaving the field at 11:30 a.m., and went home.
At 5:15 p.m., Johnson received a telephone call and as a result, he sent his neighbour to the land to confirm the report while Johnson went to the Georgetown Police station to report the matter.
Charles said the police responded and met the defendant on the plot of land with a white rice sack which contained tomatoes, and sweet and flavour peppers.
Villagers and nearby farmers had bound his hands and feet.
The investigating officer, PC 977 Fergus took the defendant and the bag to the Georgetown Police Station where the contents of the bag were shown to him and weighed in his presence.
Fergus also cautioned and interviewed the defendant in the presence of PC557 Lampkin.
In mitigation, the defendant told the court, “Give me a chance to give him the money for the foodstuff.”
However, in his submissions, Charles said, “Mek this make sense to me. He has a job that pays EC$60 daily and yet he is in somebody’s land stealing their produce?”
Charles told the court that there is a theft charge before the court “every Monday morning”, a colloquial expression meaning very frequently.
The prosecutor said he did not think that The defendant was showing genuine remorse.
After considering the sentencing guidelines, Magistrate Kaywana Jacobs decided against a five-month custodial sentence.
She said that the defendant made efforts since 2009 not to return to prison.
She ordered him to pay EC$250 in compensation in two weeks or go to prison for two months.
She also bonded the defendant for six months in the sum of EC$600 or three months in prison.
“Don’t commit another offence to pay for this offence,” the magistrate warned The defendant. “Continue to walk the road that you have been walking since 2009. Reap what you plant, not what other people plant,” she said.